Ohope Wins completes Oaks double

An exclusive club has a new member after Ohope Wins (NZ) (Ocean Park) powered to victory in the A$1 million Gr.1 Asahi Super Dry Australian Oaks (2400m) at Randwick on Saturday.

The daughter of Ocean Park became only the fourth filly to complete the New Zealand Oaks-Australian Oaks double, following on from Domino (NZ) (Grosvenor) (1990), Bonneval (NZ) (Makfi) (2017) and Pennyweka (NZ) (Satono Aladdin) (2023).

Ohope Wins stamped herself as a standout talent among New Zealand’s staying three-year-olds during the summer, stringing together successive come-from-behind wins in the Gr.2 Sir Patrick Hogan Stakes (2000m), Gr.2 David & Karyn Ellis Fillies’ Classic (2100m) and Gr.1 New Zealand Oaks (2400m).

She was bought by Yulong Investments after the first of those wins, and after capping her domestic campaign in the Oaks at Ellerslie in February, she was transferred out of Lance O’Sullivan and Andrew Scott’s Matamata stable to move into the care of Chris Waller for an autumn Sydney campaign.

A distance drop to 2000m and a muddling pace brought Ohope Wins undone when she made her Australian debut in the Gr.1 Vinery Stud Stakes at Rosehill on March 28, and she had to settle for a late-finishing and close fourth. Everything that she had shown in New Zealand suggested that the step back up to 2400m for the Australian Oaks would lift her to another level, and that was exactly what happened in the Randwick classic on Saturday.

Sent out as a warm favourite, Ohope Wins was ridden patiently by champion expat Kiwi jockey James McDonald and settled near the back of the field as longshots Stand My Ground and La Morra showed the way. Ohope Wins was more than a dozen lengths from the lead when the field turned out of the back straight, but she always appeared to be travelling smoothly.

The field began to bunch up coming down the side of the track, and Ohope Wins was moving through her gears.

McDonald hooked her to the outside at the top of the straight and let her rip, and Ohope Wins quickly bounded up alongside the leaders. Second favourite Profoundly (Farnan) rose to meet her challenge and proved the hardest to get past, but Ohope Wins slowly but surely edged ahead to win by a long neck.

“They ran the race really quickly, so it suited her down to the ground,” McDonald said. “I always had a plan to ride her quiet. We were fortunate that the pace went on and it never stopped, so it was going to be the toughest stayer that won, and that’s exactly what she was.

“It didn’t quite go her way last start at Rosehill, which was a slowly run race. She’s a very gritty filly and showed that today, where she had enough on the line. The other two (placegetters Profoundly and After Summer) were brave, and it was lucky we were on a good horse.”

Waller was quick to point out the groundwork that had been laid by the Oaks heroine’s previous trainers.

“I can’t take all the credit,” he said. “Obviously I’ve been entrusted with the horse by Yulong.

“Lance O’Sullivan and Andrew Scott did a great job with her before she came to me, plus they’ve given me a hand with her as well. Very friendly and very helpful, which we’ve got to thank them for.

“It hasn’t been hard at all inheriting her for this Oaks campaign, because you know the horse is good enough. It was just about keeping it simple. We might not have got it quite right with the Vinery, but I think she just needed the run. Speaking with Lance O’Sullivan, the confidence he had in her – he said she’s one of the best horses he’s ever dealt with, so it’s a pretty big comment coming from him.

“She’s a lovely filly that’s been gifted to us by the Yulong team and well done to Lance and Andrew for the job they did. We’ve just kept it simple with a very talented filly.”

Ohope Wins was bred by Gartshore Bloodstock and raced in their white, black and red colours until she was purchased by Yulong.

She is by Waikato Stud stallion Ocean Park, who is enjoying one of the best seasons of his career and sits third on the New Zealand sires’ premiership. That success has been built on the likes of Ohope Wins along with Group Two-winning fellow three-year-old fillies Tellum (NZ) (Ocean Park) and Autumn Glory (NZ) (Ocean Park). The latter was runner-up behind Ohope Wins in the New Zealand Oaks and then filled the same position in the Gr.1 New Zealand Derby (2400m).

The dam of Ohope Wins is the Redoute’s Choice mare Choux Mania, who is a half-sister to the Group One winners Jimmy Choux and Miss Wilson. Jimmy Choux was a five-time winner at the elite level including the New Zealand Derby (2400m) and the Rosehill Guineas (2000m), was runner-up in the Cox Plate (2040m), and was New Zealand’s Horse of the Year in 2011-12.

A three-quarter-sister to Ohope Wins is currently being offered by Haunui Farm in the NZB National Online Yearling Sale on Gavelhouse Plus, which concludes on Tuesday from 6pm NZT. The filly by Ocean Park is catalogued as Lot 87, and bidding currently stands at $10,000. – NZ Racing Desk.

Crouch dominant in Hawke’s Bay Cup

Rugged stayer Crouch (NZ) (Tarzino) may well have earned the right to put an Australian stamp in his passport with a typically dogged effort to claim the headline event on the Otaki card on Saturday, the Listed NZ Punter Of The Year @ HB Spring Carnival Hawke’s Bay Cup (2200m).

The Mike Breslin prepared six-year-old gelding went into Saturday’s contest as one of the favoured candidates following his late-closing effort for third in the Gr.2 Awapuni Gold Cup (2100m) at Trentham when last produced on raceday.

Breslin was keen to see his charge perform to his best as he eyes a possible tilt at the Listed Sandown Cup (3200m) at Caulfield on May 31 and got just that as Crouch burst away from his rivals in the final stages of the contest in the hands of rider Chris Dell.

Dell was having his first raceday ride on the son of Westbury Stud-based stallion Tarzino and made the contest a true staying test by attacking pacemakers Opawa Jack (NZ) (War Decree) and Sunset Boulevard (NZ) (Eminent) three-wide at the 600m, taking the front as the trio rounded the home bend.

Crouch found plenty under a vigorous ride and never looked like flinching as he held out Cambridge raider Sinhaman (NZ) (Tivaci) by just on two lengths at the finish line, with Pacifico (NZ) (Ardrossan) gamely clinging to third after setting the early pace in the contest.

Breslin is mulling his Australian options for a one-off raid in Victoria but has been leaning in favour of the Sandown Cup after Crouch showed the 3200m journey would be no issues with his back-to-back runner-up finishes in the Gr.3 Wellington Cup (3200m).

“He is just coming of age if you look at his Wellington Cup run earlier and the Awapuni Cup run last time,” Breslin said.

“Today there was a bit more cut in the track and I said to Chris, who hadn’t ridden him before, that the horse would maintain a gallop and that’s what he did.

“I’ve pencilled in the Sandown Cup, which is a two-mile race in Aussie in late May, for him.

“He may be a touch below the top guns as there is also a two-mile race at Flemington around the same time but you normally get all the imports in that as it is a qualifying event for the Melbourne Cup (Gr.1, 3200m), so I think we will take him over for the Sandown Cup instead.”

A $20,000 purchase by Breslin out of the Book 2 Westbury Stud draft at Karaka in 2021, Crouch is named after former Liverpool and English international footballer Peter Crouch.

Raced by Breslin and Roy Potter, Crouch has now won seven of his 34 starts and $421,155 in prizemoney.- By Kevin Robertson, LOVERACING.NZ News Desk

Te Akau filly enchanting in Welcome Stakes

Te Akau Racing continued their dominance of New Zealand’s juvenile ranks when taking out the quinella in the Listed Property Brokers Welcome Stakes (1000m).

Trainers Mark Walker and Sam Bergerson, who won both of New Zealand’s two-year-old elite-level races this season, were represented in the Riccarton feature by Enchantment (NZ) (Hello Youmzain) and Never Too Much (NZ) (Rubick).

Both have shown plenty of promise on the track, with Never Too Much running third in his two previous starts, while Enchantment had the same form line before finishing runner-up at the Christchurch track last month.

Enchantment was the best away in the eight-horse field and made a beeline to the front. She set a solid tempo under jockey Michael McNab and was never headed, seeing off the late challenge of her fast-finishing stablemate to win by three-quarters of a length.

“She was building to this, she has done well every time she has stepped out to the races,” McNab said.

“I thought her best run was the other day when she was a bit covered up and she chased, but I jumped so well and a couple of the others didn’t, so I took up the lead. She was a little bit green but once she straightened up she picked up well and held them off well.”

Bergerson was pleased to secure black-type for his filly and said the Welcome Stakes has been her main aim for some time.

“Once we couldn’t get her to the Karaka Millions, we worked back from this and we are really stoked to get a black-type win on her CV,” he said.

“It was a good, positive ride by Michael, he summed it up well. She still does a little bit wrong and wanted to lug out a lot in that race.

“She is a sharp filly, she is not overly big, but she is tough and she is coping with it really well.”

Enchantment will bid to add to her stakes tally in next month’s Listed Berkley Stud Champgne Stakes (1200m) at Riccarton, a race Bergerson believes stablemate Never Too Much will be ideally suited to.

“The 1200m black-type in three weeks looks ideal for him (Never Too Much),” Bergerson said. “He is still learning and improving, he just let himself down at the start, but he attacked the line nicely late.

“He is going the right way, he is just taking a bit of time.”

Bred by Emblem Ltd, Enchantment is by Hello Youmzain and out of dual Group Three winner Belle Fascino (NZ).

She was offered through Haunui Farm’s 2025 New Zealand Bloodstock Book 1 Yearling Sale draft where she was purchased by Sheamus Mills Bloodstock for $60,000.

She has now won one and placed in three of her four starts to date and has earned just shy of her purchase price.– By Joshua Smith, LOVERACING.NZ News Desk

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