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One of the memorable three-horse wars in the Cox Plate occurred in 2012 when the New Zealand-bred Ocean Park proved his superiority over the three-year-old duo of All Too Hard and Pierro in the Moonee Valley classic in a great finish.
It seems like only yesterday the trio retired to stud with a tally of 14 group-1 wins collectively. All three were to be hugely popular with breeders sending capacity books in their first three seasons.
Pierro and All Too Hard have already made their marks at the Magic Millions on the Gold Coast. Pierro had 38 yearlings sell for $9.7 million and All Too Hard 38 yearlings for $8.4m. Their respective averages were $262,568 and $221,052.
Ocean Park, however, had just one yearling in the sale, which is not surprising considering his base is Waikato Stud in New Zealand. This was a filly offered by Bhima Stud and she was an absolute cracker, with Colm Santry admiring her qualities and paying $330,000 to secure her.
Ocean Park has one of the biggest representations at the Karaka Premier Sales, which sells on Monday and Tuesday, with 39 lots catalogued. He is second only to his farm mate – another Cox Plate winner in Savabeel – who has 52.
Pierro has 11 and All Too Hard four, so obviously it is Ocean Park's turn to grab plenty of attention and if his stock are anything like the filly sold at the Millions then his progeny will be selling for big dollars.
Ocean Park is a son of Stradbroke winner Thorn Park, whose son Jimmy Choux has started what looks like being a successful breeding career with a number of his first crop showing potential in Australia and New Zealand.
Jimmy Choux, in fact, has two of the most popular fancies in Sunday's Karaka Millions at Ellerslie. They are Mando Blahnig, which is the No.1 qualifier and What Choux Want, which is No.5.
On his retirement Ocean Park had eight wins, five at group-1 level and almost $2.8m in earnings. He was syndicated and a number of New Zealand's top breeding operations quickly snapped up shares.
One was Brent Taylor, who operates Trelawney Stud and were the breeders of Ocean Park. Taylor told NZ News that he has a son of Ocean Park among his 24 catalogued, which could easily be his star attraction.
"Most of the Ocean Park breed look to have thrown quite similar to him, especially through the head. They have length, good muscle and great attitude," he said.
"The one that reminds me most of Ocean Park is the Ruud Van Slaats colt. He is of similar attitude. He is probably a slightly more bigger and more forward colt as Ocean Park who was a later foal at this sale. This guy is a very early foal so he is a bit more mature but I can see quite a lot of similarities in their mannerisms and the way they move. Let's hope he is half as good."
Ruud Van Slaats is a daughter of Van Nistlerooy and was group 1-placed, also claiming three group-2 wins. Her two foals to date have both shown great promise in New Zealand and the Ocean Park colt sells as Lot 51 on Monday.
Another freshman stallion with great credentials is Reliable Man, the grey import who smashed a tremendous field of weight for-age performers in the Queen Elizabeth Stakes in 2013, only to suffer serious injury and be retired immediately after the race.
He was syndicated by Gerry Harvey to stand in New Zealand and, like Ocean Park, the son of Dalakhani was quickly snapped hop by Kiwi breeders. Reliable Man had three yearlings sell at the Magic Millions sales for $220,000, $155,000 and $95,000, averaging $156,666.
He has a much bigger representation at Karaka with 15 yearlings selling, nine of them greys throwing to Reliable Man, with solid prices anticipated by keen judges.
Winning form
New Zealand Bloodstock has facts and figures to confirm its 2016 Premier Sale will provide another successful venture after results in the 2014-15 racing season in Australasia revealed a massive 14 individual group-1 winners of 17 races.
The strike rate by Karaka-sold yearlings was highlighted during the cups carnival, with Prince Of Penzance (Melbourne Cup), Tarzino (Victoria Derby) and Mongolian Khan (Caulfield Cup) scoring.
There are relations to the above trio selling at the Premier Sales – full brothers to Prince Of Penzance (Pentire x Fairy Oak) and Tarzino (Tavistock x Zarzino), with a half-brother to Mongolian Khan (Holy Roman Emperor x Cantafit) sired by Magnus – who should be in huge demand after the great form shown during the spring.
However, the star attraction at Karaka would have to be the first yearling to sell by Frankel and breeding fans will have a long wait to discover if he will become the sales-topper, with the colt from Our Echezeaux catalogued as Lot 445, the third-last yearling to be offered.
The colt was bred by NZB's owner Sir Peter Vela, who has had great memories with the Our Echezeaux family which includes Darci Brahma, Burgundy, Ethereal and Romanee Conti.
Vela sent the mare to Europe to be mated with the super horse Frankel and talk from New Zealand is that the colt has a tremendous presence and should go close to topping the Premier Sale.
New Zealand's biggest buyer, David Ellis, bought Darci Brahma from the same sale and it would not be surprising to see him added to his Te Akau purchases, with the colt boasting unbelievable value as a future stallion prospect.
There are five yearlings by Frankel to be offered in the Inglis Easter Sales in April.
