Tarzino Trophy Countdown: Number 6 - Ocean Park 2012

The first Group 1 of the New Zealand racing season always brings a great deal of excitement. As we get closer to the running of the 2020 Tarzino Trophy, we are taking a look at the top 10 performances in the race since the turn of the century.

First run in 1985 when named the Challenge Stakes, all through the years this race has attracted an extremely strong field. Given it is early in the season at Weight-For-Age conditions over 1400m, horses of the highest echelon use this race as a springboard to campaigns both in New Zealand and Internationally.

Previously named the Mudgway Stakes, the Mudgway Challenge Stakes and the Makfi Challenge Stakes, the race was renamed the Tarzino Trophy in 2017. Tarzino - a former Victoria Derby and Rosehill Guineas winner - now stands at Westbury Stud.

He had shown tremendous promise already, but when Ocean Park won the Makfi Challenge Stakes of 2012 it would kick start him on an amazing run that would rival any New Zealand horse of the modern era.

This bay colt by the late Thorn Park from Zabeel mare Sayyida went through the ring as Lot 675 of the 2010 Karaka Select Sale on account of Trewlaney Stud. The hammer fell for $150,000 to Matamata trainer Gary Hennessy for he and his Hong Kong owners Andrew Wong and Steve Tan, and what a masterstroke of bloodstock purchasing that turned out to be.

Ocean Park has a superb pedigree. Through the exploits of her son, the dam would be named Broodmare of the Year in 2012/13 and would also produce Grunt - a dual Group 1 winner in Australia. The granddam Eastern Princess is a three-quarter sister to the legendary O’Reilly and the granddam of Group 1 Easter Handicap winner Prince Kaapstad. Other high quality members of the maternal family are Group 1 Haunui Farm WFA winner Critic and triple Group 1 winning Our Pompeii.

Debuting as a 3yo, Ocean Park won his first two starts to signal he was a thoroughbred well above the average. He stepped up to group company in the Great Northern Guineas (Group 2, 1600m) and finished an eye catching 2nd, displaying the turn of foot he became synonymous with.

It was in the Phil Cataldo Bloodstock Wellington Stakes (Group 3, 1600m) at his fourth raceday appearance that he showed what he was really capable of. He would treat his rivals with disdain to win by 4 1/2 lengths in a hand-canter. Commentator Tony Lee summed it up best when he said “Ocean Park has come of age!”. In behind him that day were Nashville and Burgundy - both high quality subsequent Group winners.

He would lock horns in a battle on the Te Rapa straight with champion mare Silent Achiever next up in the Waikato Guineas (Group 3, 2000m), bravely going down by a neck in a performance that lost him no admirers.

An Australian assault beckoned in March of 2012 and after a fresh up 8th in the Randwick Guineas (Group 1, 1600m), he would go down narrowly by a neck to Laser Hawk in the Rosehill Guineas (Group 1, 2000m). That would be it for his first trip across the Tasman, but it was only a pre-cursor for what was to come in that jurisdiction.

With a little over a month out to the running of the 2012 Makfi Challenge Stakes, he would use a stylish trial win where he beat home Dundeel at Te Teko in August as a lead in to the contest.

In another of these very strong fields this race continues to produce, he would sit as a $6.20 second favourite with the TAB. He was fresh up and 1400m would now be considered below his optimum trip.

The deserved favourite was Mufhasa, the previous years winner off the back of a Group 1 winning Australian campaign.

The Foxbridge Plate is traditionally a very strong form indicator to the race and the winner of that Fleur de Lune had to be contended with. Xanadu would pose a big threat - he had been in the thick end of numerous black-type contests. Guiseppina was a stunning winner of that years Telegraph Handicap and He’s Remarkable was putting together a strong profile with black type wins in Australia to his name. The hardened veteran Fritzy Boy, the winner four years prior, was back for another crack and could not be discounted either.

“It was an incredibly important race for us at the time, we had to scratch out of the Australian Derby in the spring as the favourite and we knew the horse was special” says Hennessy

Sometimes low barrier draws aren’t your friend, and jumping from barrier four meant jockey Lisa Allpress was obliged to sit on the rail. The 4yo sat a little worse than midfield throughout the running and could only watch on in envy as others began their customary wide Hastings runs at the 600m mark.

When they rounded the corner, he was still in a position three back on the aluminium. The situation looked foregone when Fleur de Lune came across to block him and push him further back.

It was destined to become one of those “forget the run, get him next time” stories at the 300m pole when he was essentially in neutral and being held from left, right and centre. Especially so when you had a horse like Mufhasa leading from the front and a stack of others embarking on uninterrupted slingshots down the outside.

But like a life ring being thrown to a man overboard, a glimmer of hope came when Khemosabi drifted away to reveal an opening. An opening is one thing, but you need a horse like Ocean Park to be able to go from idle to top gear in the blink of an eye.

Into top gear he went and with his devastating turn of foot he was off to victory scraping paint as he went.

Only special horses win from those positions and Ocean Park proved he was a special one that day.

The win confirmed to his Matamata trainer that he was ready to take on the Aussies:

“The way he won that day showed we were on track for a special campaign. The Tarzino has always been the yardstick for our spring horses to set up them up for Australia, it’s like what the Memsie Stakes is in Australia”

“His field was outstanding with a horse like Mufhasa, the way he won it still sends a shiver down your spine”

As eluded to earlier, the Makfi Challenge Stakes of 2012 was the beginning of a magnificent two months for the Waikato born, bred and trained entire.

On the strength of his brilliant Hawkes Bay victory he would embark on a second expedition to Australia, this time to the state of Victoria where in the Spring the standard of racing is the match of most in the world.

Flying somewhat under the radar as far as the Australian audience was concerned, he began with victory in the Group 1 Underwood Stakes (1800m) at Caulfield.

The bookmakers weren’t to be fooled again as he started a short-priced favourite for the Group 1 Caulfield Stakes (2000m) three weeks later. It was the same venue and the same result. Victory.

It was a tilt at one of the very best Weight-For-Age events in world racing, the Cox Plate (2040m), where he would shoot for real stardom. Starting as a 6/1 third favourite, under Glen Boss he was 10 lengths from the leader with 800m to travel, not ideal at Moonee Valley. But he worked into the race at the turn, and in an incredible show of grit, wore down the 3yo All Too Hard who was 8kg better off at the weights. He was the first New Zealand trained galloper since the great Sunline in 2000 to win the famous race.

The six week period in Melbourne, winning three Group 1 WFA races in a row, confirmed him as a star of his generation.

“He created his own his own history in racing going on to win a total of 4 Group 1’s in a row including the Cox Plate. Had he won the Mackinnon Stakes he would have equalled Tulloch’s record”

He would pick up another victory at the elite level in the New Zealand Stakes (Group 1, 2000m) at Ellerslie before venturing to the UAE for a shot at the Dubai Duty Free. It wasn’t to be and in finishing 12th he sustained a tendon injury.

With a record of eight wins (five of those at the highest level) from 15 starts and earnings of $3.67million, the decision was made by Hennessy and his owners to retire their star..

He retired with a feat that is unmatched - that is winning the New Zealand Middle Distance Horse of the Year, The Australian Middle Distance Horse of the Year and the overall New Zealand Horse of the Year in the same season.

The stud farms started circling, not often does a stallion prospect who in five Group 1 victories alone has beaten 29 individual Group 1 winners with 67 Group 1 wins between them become available.

The decision was made that he would stand at Waikato Stud and his stallion career has grown from strength-to-strength.

In a breakout season of 2019/20 he was able to be the leading New Zealand based sire in Australia (beating his stallion barn mate Savabeel by over $1million in prize money) and sit 10th overall on the premiership there.

Showing superb versatility, he has sired Group 1 winning sprinter Tofane, Group 1 and Golden Eagle winning miler Kolding and Group 2 winning up and coming stayer Oceanex who is headed on a Melbourne Cup path.

Still in the early stages of his career in the breeding game, he has all the hallmarks of being as successful at stud as he was on the race track.

Our Number 6 since the turn of the millennium is Ocean Park!