Daughter Of Australia Storms To Grade 1 Glory

Ocean Road (4f Australia - Love And Laughter, by Theatrical) produced a flying finish to gain her first Grade 1 success in Tuesday’s Gamely Stakes at Santa Anita.

Twice Stakes placed in the UK for Hugo Palmer, the Qatar Racing-owned bay made a smart return to action last month, when recording her first win for Brendan Walsh at Keeneland. Racing over nine furlongs once again in the $400,000 feature, she was positioned towards the back of the field by Umberto Rispoli and switched right to challenge with over two furlongs left to race. Running on strongly under pressure, she swept past Grade 1 winners Going To Vegas and Going Global to lead by half a length on the line.

“I think there’s some more improvement in her,” the winning trainer later revealed. “There were a couple nice fillies in this race and we knew we weren’t going to get by them too easy. She showed a nice kick and it’s always good to see that from a horse coming over here to run in this country.”

Ocean Road was bred by K and Mrs Cullen of Middlelane Farm, who sold the close relation to Wigmore Hall (High Chaparral) as a foal for 140,000gns. She becomes a fifth top-flight winner by Australia, who sired 12 Group/Stakes winners in 2021 alone.