Ocean Park (NZ) overhauled All Too Hard in the closing stages to capture the Australia’s weight-for-age championship in the G1 W S Cox Plate at Moonee Valley on Saturday.

Ocean Park (4h Thorn Park – Sayyida by Zabeel) won by a neck under Glen Boss to ring up his fourth Group 1 victory in a row.  His climb to the top started in the Makfi Challenge at Hastings on September 1 and continued in Melbourne in the Underwood Stakes and Caulfield Stakes.

He is the first New Zealand-trained Cox Plate winner since mighty mare Sunline in 2000.  “I’m really pleased for all of New Zealand,” trainer Gary Hennessy said.  “We set a plan back in the autumn and it’s a huge thrill for the owners Andrew Wong and Steve Yan.”

Caulfield Guineas winner All Too Hard (Casino Prince) burst to the lead a furlong out and the younger half-brother to Black Caviar momentarily appeared home.  He was 8kg better off under the weight-for-age scale but couldn’t hold off the Kiwi raider in the final 50 metres.

Hennessy bought Ocean Park for $150,000 from Trelawney Stud at the 2010 NZB yearling sale and he convinced the Hong Kong-based partners to keep the colt in New Zealand.  ”I send a lot of horses up there,” Hennessy said.  “But I recommended this bloke stay here and he hasn’t let us down.”

Ocean Park gave Glen Boss his third Cox Plate and he rated the win on a par with So You Think (2009) and Makybe Diva (2005).  “It feels like my greatest achievement,” Boss said.  “I know I’ve done some wonderful things, but I’ve been in this colt’s corner the whole time and he’s a serious racehorse.”

His sire Thorn Park (Spinning World) captured the NZ sires’ premiership in 2010-11 when he wrested the title from fellow Windsor Park champion Volksraad (Green Desert).  But an untimely hoof injury has sidelined him from the breeding barn this year.

Thorn Park went one better in this year’s Cox Plate after his champion colt Jimmy Choux was runner-up to Pinker Pinker last year.

The Cox Plate winner’s dam Sayyida comes from the family of G1 winners Prince Kaapstad (Kaapstad) and Critic (Centaine).  She has a 2yo filly with Roger James named Lady Sayyida (Iffraaj) and her Pins colt has been nominated for the 2013 Inglis Easter yearling sale.

– Karl Patterson

OCEAN PARK
Thorn Park stallion wins the Cox Plate