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Congratulations Gary Hennessy & Ocean Park

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On behalf of Cafe I'd like to offer Gary H and all those associated with Ocean Park our hearty congratulations.

I thought the article below was worth a read, if only to enjoy the soaring rhetoric Bossy loves so much!!

It's a great combo isn't it, the proud Kiwi and the loud Aussie.

The Cox Plate field bunches up past the post the first time around. Photo: Pat Scala

SO WHO needs exotic foreigners when you can have a charismatic Kiwi racehorse?

Ocean Park is a mixture of class and toughness, athleticism and aggression, the best to come out of New Zealand for years.

And it wouldn't matter who or what was in front of him: he would lower his neck, grit his teeth and run it down.

Click for more photos

Cox Plate colour and racing

Jockey Glen Boss celebrates winning the Cox Plate on Ocean Park at Moonee Valley. Photo: Mal Fairclough

View all 25 photos

Glen Boss, never a man to let the chance to use a superlative slip, says it simply. This is one hell of a racehorse.

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After the four-year-old chased down the gallant three-year-old colt All Too Hard and grabbed him in the shadows of the post to claim the $3 million Cox Plate by a neck, with another three-year-old in Pierro almost four lengths back in third place, not a single person in the 30,000-plus crowd that thronged the Moonee Valley amphitheatre would have argued with him.

Once upon a time, New Zealanders used to throw up the overseas challenge for Australian racing, but that was in years gone by, before sheikhs from the desert and lords from the English shires, Japanese businessmen and French bon vivants, discovered the attraction of Melbourne in the spring and the lure of a turbo-charged Australian dollar, on offer by the truckload for the winners of the nation's storied races.

Nowadays the Kiwis, mainly tough and unsentimental horsemen, tend to sell off their best bloodstock, preferring the guarantee of cash in the bank for the glorious uncertainty that only might deliver dreams and riches on the racetrack.

But Matamama-trained Ocean Park was one of the few potential top liners that did not make the journey to Australia or, more usually, Hong Kong.

The four-year-old son of Thorn Park stayed with his part owner and trainer Garry Hennessy, and yesterday the years of patience, the careful, painstaking planning all came to fruition in this, the race that truly deserves its reputation as Australasia's heavyweight championship.

But to take the champion's title, a pretender has to first become a contender, which Ocean Park did so emphatically this spring.

Many horses look hugely impressive as three-year-olds, dominant amongst their own age group. But most struggle to survive in the jungle of open competition they face as four-year-olds, when they confront battle-hardened warriors who have proved their ability to slug it out in the high-pressure trenches of a race like the Cox Plate.

Ocean Park yesterday was met by the likes of the great mare More Joyous, the multiple Group One winning Shoot Out, Sincero, who himself was able to beat the older handicappers in a Group One Stradbroke as a three-year-old, Caulfield Cup winner and placegetter Southern Speed and Green Moon, Cox Plate placegetter from 12 months ago Rekindled Interest, and a trio of star three-year-olds headed by the Caulfield Guineas quinella All Too Hard and Pierro.

Hennessy's horse could not have had better credentials coming into this race. He had won three Group Ones in succession, the trainer arranging his program to start at 1400 metres in the Makfi Challenge in New Zealand, before stepping him up progressively to 1800 metres and then 2000 metres in the Underwood and Caulfield Stakes, each race coming at three-week intervals with the last a fortnight before yesterday's big test.

It was the classic preparation for what turned out to be the classic horse, a vindication not just for Hennessy but also Boss. The jockey had nailed his colours to the Ocean Park mast a long time ago, deciding after riding him in Sydney, when he was beaten in the Rosehill Guineas by Laser Hawk, that Hennessey's horse might just be the best of his generation.

Boss readily admitted that he had got things wrong when he was beaten on the colt that afternoon, and he had made it his mission to make amends on the day it mattered most, in the race that matters most as a Championship decider.

While the jockey is never a man to hide his feelings the trainer is cast in the quiet, reserved, give-little-away mould of the Kiwi trainer of yore. It's fair to say that Hennessy might not be an interviewer's delight, but he was certainly in the zone leading up to this race.

''We set a plan way back in the autumn, and today was huge. Nothing has fazed him, and we were just really confident going into this race. Glen Boss, he is a champion,'' he declared in succinct fashion.

Boss, as ever, was at his ebullient best, even telling a television interviewer that the win was ''probably the greatest achievement I have ever had in this sport'' - an assertion that those who watched him win three Melbourne Cups on Makybe Diva might find difficult to fathom.

But that is Glen Boss - the ultimate big-race rider who zones in, lives in the moment and is never afraid to show his emotion and be carried away by the excitement of the occasion. His exuberance and sheer exultation in moments of triumph might lead to such statements, but that is part of the theatre and drama this jockey brings to proceedings.

His description of his partner, and how he responded to the challenge, sums things up perfectly. ''He simply wants to win and that's what it took today. It took a very, very good three-year-old in Johnny Hawke's horse to challenge me, but my horse just wanted to beat that horse, whatever was in front, he wanted to smash it. Once he got around the corner and he caught sight of the bunny he just surged, he got lower, and he surged.

''Every sinew in your body is on fire. This is such a great race to be a part of, the amphitheatre, the crowd get behind you, you can feel them. My body was like a volcano inside. I love the Cox Plate.''

And so do we Bossy, so do we.....

Read more: http://www.smh.com.a...l#ixzz2AWMkKgNT

Classic

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Just been watching Fox Sport News on TV, and they just had a piece on the race. The reporter, Charles Christian, needs to do a bit of homework. The piece ended with this classic; "Connections couldn't stop singing the praises of trainer Gary Hennessey, the man who trained Sunline to win back-to-back Cox Plates in 2000 and 2001"!

I kid you not!

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Very good win and the time too - standard would 2:02.40, so 2:04.14 on a 'dead' track was very commendable. Definitely a sire prospect now, with his speed and breeding - 4th dam is Hunza, who is the 2nd dam of O'Reilly. Traces to Hebrew Maid (13), who was imported to N.Z. about 100 years ago. Notable names in this family; Palestrina, Peter Jackson, Wotan, Beau Vite, Skipton, Indian Princess, Rare Charm, Yeman, Eastern Time, Senor and his half-brother (Trader) and Oopik. Also, Emphatic and Desirable were good winners (from Lyle Andrew's 'Blood Lines' book, to 1978). The best horses can come from established N.Z. female lines so stallions can be grown here.

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An amazing win and I can't see why people weren't 'all over' this horse and let Pierro and Green Moon start favourites in front of him. Top class win and tough as teak to claw back All Too Hard with about 8 kg's difference in the weights. Super run.

I wouldn't be at all surprised to see an announcement before too long that a stud has snaffled him up for stud duties at the completion of the season. He's done all that's required; if Jimmy Choux was a sire prospect - what about this bloke!!!!!!!!!!

Good on you Gary Henessy, Ocean Park and team Glen Boss - you've done us all proud! :)

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An amazing win and I can't see why people weren't 'all over' this horse and let Pierro and Green Moon start favourites in front of him. Top class win and tough as teak to claw back All Too Hard with about 8 kg's difference in the weights. Super run.

I wouldn't be at all surprised to see an announcement before too long that a stud has snaffled him up for stud duties at the completion of the season. He's done all that's required; if Jimmy Choux was a sire prospect - what about this bloke!!!!!!!!!!

Good on you Gary Henessy, Ocean Park and team Glen Boss - you've done us all proud! :)

I agree with you completely Lloyd!

I must say it was a truly amazing day on track at Moonee Valley yesterday! The atmosphere was incredible and when Ocean Park came home over the top of All Too Hard I absolutely erupted with joy!

It's very special to follow a horse from an unbelievable 2nd start win at Ellerslie and then less than a year later have him win Australasia's premier WFA race. As Lloyd says it was obvious for all to see that this horse was a star. I kept telling anyone who would listen that he was a champion in the making and very few people seemed to agree. So many wanted to try and find flaws in the horse but he just continues to prove the doubters wrong! To win 4 consecutive Group 1's, with the potential for 5 next week is nothing short of brilliant. He thoroughly deserved to win the Cox Plate yesterday and it was a moment I will cherish for a long time being there in person to witness it!

I love the prices you get on NZ horses from the on track bookies as well. Was able to find $6.50 for Ocean Park and $6 for Silent Achiever, much better than with our TAB!

Thrilled with Bossy's ride yesterday as well, rode the horse as I've always thought he should be ridden and timed his run to perfection.

All is forgiven for the Rosehill Guineas!

Massive congratulations to Gary and all the team associated with Ocean Park. Hope you had one hell of a night last night!

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I agree with you completely Lloyd!

I must say it was a truly amazing day on track at Moonee Valley yesterday! The atmosphere was incredible and when Ocean Park came home over the top of All Too Hard I absolutely erupted with joy!

It's very special to follow a horse from an unbelievable 2nd start win at Ellerslie and then less than a year later have him win Australasia's premier WFA race. As Lloyd says it was obvious for all to see that this horse was a star. I kept telling anyone who would listen that he was a champion in the making and very few people seemed to agree. So many wanted to try and find flaws in the horse but he just continues to prove the doubters wrong! To win 4 consecutive Group 1's, with the potential for 5 next week is nothing short of brilliant. He thoroughly deserved to win the Cox Plate yesterday and it was a moment I will cherish for a long time being there in person to witness it!

I love the prices you get on NZ horses from the on track bookies as well. Was able to find $6.50 for Ocean Park and $6 for Silent Achiever, much better than with our TAB!

Thrilled with Bossy's ride yesterday as well, rode the horse as I've always thought he should be ridden and timed his run to perfection.

All is forgiven for the Rosehill Guineas!

Massive congratulations to Gary and all the team associated with Ocean Park. Hope you had one hell of a night last night!

I'm a bit envious of you Twizzler! Would love to one day get to a Cox Plate - that would be a thrill in itself; but to watch a Kiwi get up that I had followed for a while would truly be cream on the cake!! Good on you T - great experience I'm sure.

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Beautiful twizzler, Yep they did say the last victory was against a second string lot and that along with loyal Aussies... helped your price, and oh to be a kiwi on course with a wadful from Roger James and Silent Achiever earlier in the day.

I,ve had quite a few days myself like that in Auz.

I was on course at Hastings ...Agree with all the congratulations

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Classic

A cracker piece of journalism about a great win. Why doesn't NZ have racing journos who can write material like this anymore ?? Michael Lynch is not actually a racing journo either. He's the Chief Sportswriter at the SMH - even more amazing then.

To Gary and his team (including Bossy) - a massive congrats for a superb training feat ! I get sick of telling the Aussies here that the best NZ horses can equal the best in the world and this guy is proof positive ..

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Echo the sentiments of all others - huge CONGRATS to Team Hennessy and Ocean Park! yay yay yay *happy dance*

With a similar unbeaten 4yo spring record to the Cox Plate - Ocean Park is possibly the real deal most exciting stallion prospect to come out of NZ since So You Think!

Hopefully Gary can find some room to stand him next to Tiger Prawn in future :P

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Now set to run in - and win - the MacKinnon. Quite surprising that more Cox winners dont take this route. Cant wait to see him again - reportedly jumping out of his skin Yeehaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhh

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