Oceana Dream makes winning Australian debut

More than a year after his most recent raceday appearance in the Gr.1 New Zealand Derby (2400m), Oceana Dream (NZ) (Ocean Park) kicked off his Australian career on a winning note in the A$130,000 Ern Jensen Funerals - Pinder Family Mile (1600m) at Caulfield on Saturday.

The Ocean Park gelding was previously trained by Roger James and Robert Wellwood, for whom he had four starts between January and March of 2025. He was a debut winner at Tauranga on January 2, then repeated that result in Rating 65 company at Ellerslie on February 1.

James and Wellwood raised the bar with a shot at the Gr.2 Avondale Guineas (2100m), in which Oceana Dream ran third behind Thedoctoroflove (So You Think) and Bourbon Proof (Justify). That earned him a shot at the New Zealand Derby in his fourth career start, and he finished midfield behind Willydoit (NZ) (Tarzino).

More than 13 months have passed since that race, and Oceana Dream is now trained by Peter Moody and Katherine Coleman. He has been handled patiently and given a slow and steady build-up towards his first Australian appearance, and that patient approach reaped immediate rewards on the racetrack on Saturday.

The Benchmark 74 handicap was widely expected to be dominated by hot favourites Trapdoor (Brutal) and First Chorus (Ghibellines), and the race seemed to be following that script with those two runners at the head of affairs as the field rounded the home turn.

But Oceana Dream was looming on the outside of that pair, and he gathered momentum and drew up alongside them with powerful strides down the straight. It developed into a four-way battle to the finish, with King Of The Sea (Sea The Moon) also poking through along the inside, but Oceana Dream defied his lack of race fitness and dug deep to snatch a narrow win.

“He felt really happy the whole way and I knew I had a lot of horse under me when we were coming to the turn,” jockey Linda Meech said. “He probably felt the pinch a little bit in the last 25m, but that’s to be expected.”

Moody and Coleman were delighted to pick up a first-up win for Oceana Dream’s owner-breeders Ron and Judi Wanless.

“Really happy with that,” Coleman said. “It’s great to get a win for the Wanless family, who have been so patient.

“He came over to us with good New Zealand form. He had a Derby preparation and showed that he was very competitive at that sort of level.

“But he just took a while to acclimatise when he came over, so we gave him a long break. We were finding it a bit hard to find an ideal kick-off race for him this time in, so we had to go straight to the mile today. That wasn’t ideal, and particularly with the testing track conditions today, so he would have been entitled to get tired late. But it was great to see him so strong to the line.

“We haven’t got any concrete plans in mind for him at the moment. We’ll see how he comes through this and then try to find another race for him, probably in about three weeks.”

Oceana Dream capped a big day for Waikato Stud stallion Ocean Park, whose star daughter Ohope Wins (NZ) (Ocean Park) won the Gr.1 Australian Oaks (2400m) at Randwick earlier in the afternoon.

The dam of Oceana Dream is the Redoute’s Choice mare Clevedon Bay, who won twice and placed on another five occasions from only a nine-start career. Her other progeny include the 11-race winner Victory Bay and three-race winner Quadri (NZ) (Savabeel).

After foaling Oceana Dream, Clevedon Bay returned to Ocean Park and produced Geisha Gal (NZ) (Ocean Park), who is an unraced three-year-old filly. She also has an unnamed two-year-old filly by Circus Maximus and a yearling colt by Profondo, and she was served by Auguste Rodin last spring.