Ocean Swell
Encyclopedia
Ocean Swell was a British Thoroughbred
racehorse and sire. In a career that lasted from 1943 to 1945 he ran fifteen times and won six races. As a three-year-old 1944 he won the New Derby, a wartime
substitute for the Epsom Derby
run at Newmarket
. He later developed into a specialist stayer, winning the Jockey Club Cup
in the Autumn of 1944 and the Gold Cup
at the following summer. He was then retired to stud where he had limited success.
politician and former First-class cricket
er, Harry Primrose, 6th Earl of Rosebery, at his Mentmore Stud
. He was a bay horse with a narrow white blaze
and white socks on both his hind legs.
The colt was one of nine winners produced by the mare Jiffy, the best of the others being the 1946 Epsom Oaks
runner-up Iona. Ocean Swell was from the first crop of foals sired by Blue Peter
, an outstanding racehorse who won the 2000 Guineas and the Derby in 1939 and went on to be champion sire on three occasions.
Ocean Swell was sent into training with Jack Jarvis at his Park Lodge Stables at Newmarket, Suffolk.
Alington Plate at the same course beating a field of nineteen which included the future New St Leger
winner Tehran.
In the Derby, Jack Jarvis’s stable jockey, Eph Smith, chose to ride Tehran and the ride on Ocean Swell went to William “Billy” Nevett, who was given leave from serving as a Private in the Royal Army Ordnance Corps
to take the mount. Nevett had already won one wartime Derby on Owen Tudor
, a horse who had also been rejected by his stable’s main jockey. Ocean Swell started a 28/1 outsider while Garden Path and Growing Confidence disputed favouritism in a field of twenty. The early pace was slow, but the field quickened just after half way and Nevett sent his horse into the lead just over three furlongs from the finish. In a "furious" finish, Ocean Swell stayed on strongly in the closing stages, showing "pluck and stamina" to win a "great fight" by a neck from Tehran, with the fast-finishing Happy Landing a short head back in third.
Ocean Swell did not race again for three months before contesting the New St Leger, in which he finished third behind Tehran and Borealis. On his final start of the year he was moved up to two and a quarter miles and showed his aptitude for extended distances by winning the Jockey Club Cup
. After the race Lord Rosebery praised his colt's speed and stamina and announced that he would stay in training with the Ascot Gold Cup
as his main objective.
, in which he finshed second to Borealis in a "great race", with the Oaks
winner Hycilla in third. Tehran, who had been unbeaten since losing to Ocean Swell in the Derby was a late withdrawal: his trainer Frank Butters
did not want to risk him on hard ground before the Ascot Gold Cup.
The end of the war in Europe meant than some races were allowed to return to their traditional venues and on 7 July the Gold Cup was run at Ascot
for the first time since 1939 in front of an estimated 60,000 spectators. Ocean Swell was well suited by the two and a half mile course and won by a length and a half from Tehran. He was thus the first (and remains the only) Derby winner to win the Gold Cup at Ascot since Persimmon
in 1897 (Owen Tudor had won a substitute "Gold Cup" at Newmarket over a reduced distance).
) and the successful handicapper Fastnet Rock. The best of his progeny was almost certainly the gelding
St. Vincent
, a minor winner in England who improved to became American Champion Male Turf Horse in 1955. Ocean Swell was put down after sustaining an injury in 1954.
Thoroughbred
The Thoroughbred is a horse breed best known for its use in horse racing. Although the word thoroughbred is sometimes used to refer to any breed of purebred horse, it technically refers only to the Thoroughbred breed...
racehorse and sire. In a career that lasted from 1943 to 1945 he ran fifteen times and won six races. As a three-year-old 1944 he won the New Derby, a wartime
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
substitute for the Epsom Derby
Epsom Derby
The Derby Stakes, popularly known as The Derby, internationally as the Epsom Derby, and under its present sponsor as the Investec Derby, is a Group 1 flat horse race in Great Britain open to three-year-old thoroughbred colts and fillies...
run at Newmarket
Newmarket Racecourse
The town of Newmarket, in Suffolk, England, is the headquarters of British horseracing, home to the largest cluster of training yards in the country and many key horse racing organisations. Newmarket Racecourse has two courses - the Rowley Mile Course and the July Course. Both are wide, galloping...
. He later developed into a specialist stayer, winning the Jockey Club Cup
Jockey Club Cup
The British Champions Long Distance Cup, formerly known as the Jockey Club Cup, is a Group 3 flat horse race in Great Britain which is open to thoroughbreds aged three years or older. It is run at Ascot over a distance of 2 miles...
in the Autumn of 1944 and the Gold Cup
Ascot Gold Cup
The Gold Cup is a Group 1 flat horse race in Great Britain open to thoroughbreds aged four years or older. It is run at Ascot over a distance of 2 miles and 4 furlongs , and it is scheduled to take place each year in June....
at the following summer. He was then retired to stud where he had limited success.
Background
Ocean Swell, like both of his parents, was bred by his owner, the LiberalLiberal Party (UK)
The Liberal Party was one of the two major political parties of the United Kingdom during the 19th and early 20th centuries. It was a third party of negligible importance throughout the latter half of the 20th Century, before merging with the Social Democratic Party in 1988 to form the present day...
politician and former First-class cricket
First-class cricket
First-class cricket is a class of cricket that consists of matches of three or more days' scheduled duration, that are between two sides of eleven players and are officially adjudged first-class by virtue of the standard of the competing teams...
er, Harry Primrose, 6th Earl of Rosebery, at his Mentmore Stud
Mentmore and Crafton Studs
Mentmore Stud and Crafton Stud were thoroughbred horse breeding operations that were part of the Mentmore Towers estate on the Bedfordshire and Buckinghamshire borders, England....
. He was a bay horse with a narrow white blaze
Horse markings
Markings on horses usually are distinctive white areas on an otherwise dark base coat color. Most horses have some markings, and they help to identify the horse as a unique individual. Markings are present at birth and do not change over the course of the horse's life...
and white socks on both his hind legs.
The colt was one of nine winners produced by the mare Jiffy, the best of the others being the 1946 Epsom Oaks
Epsom Oaks
The Oaks Stakes is a Group 1 flat horse race in Great Britain open to three-year-old thoroughbred fillies. It is run at Epsom Downs over a distance of 1 mile, 4 furlongs and 10 yards , and it is scheduled to take place each year in early June....
runner-up Iona. Ocean Swell was from the first crop of foals sired by Blue Peter
Blue Peter III
Blue Peter was a British bred Thoroughbred racehorse whose career was cut short by the outbreak of World War II. He won the Epsom Derby and was later a Leading broodmare sire in Great Britain & Ireland....
, an outstanding racehorse who won the 2000 Guineas and the Derby in 1939 and went on to be champion sire on three occasions.
Ocean Swell was sent into training with Jack Jarvis at his Park Lodge Stables at Newmarket, Suffolk.
1943: two-year-old season
Ocean Swell showed little ability in the earliest part of his career, finishing unplaced in his first three starts, before running second in the Isleham Plate at Newmarket in the autumn. On his final run of the year Ocean Swell won the six furlongFurlong
A furlong is a measure of distance in imperial units and U.S. customary units equal to one-eighth of a mile, equivalent to 220 yards, 660 feet, 40 rods, or 10 chains. The exact value of the furlong varies slightly among English-speaking countries....
Alington Plate at the same course beating a field of nineteen which included the future New St Leger
St. Leger Stakes
The St. Leger Stakes is a Group 1 flat horse race in Great Britain which is open to three-year-old thoroughbred colts and fillies. It is run at Doncaster over a distance of 1 mile, 6 furlongs and 132 yards , and it is scheduled to take place each year in September.Established in 1776, the St. Leger...
winner Tehran.
1944: three-year-old season
Wartime led to many racecourses being closed either for safety reasons or because the land was needed for military use. Because of this all of Ocean Swell’s races in 1944 took place at Newmarket. He began promisingly by winning the Column Produce Stakes over one mile and then finished third to the Fred Darling-trained Borealis in the Lavenham Handicap before running in the 2000 Guineas. He started at odds of 33/1 in a field of twenty-six and finished unplaced behind the filly Garden Path who beat Growing Confidence by a head, with Tehran third.In the Derby, Jack Jarvis’s stable jockey, Eph Smith, chose to ride Tehran and the ride on Ocean Swell went to William “Billy” Nevett, who was given leave from serving as a Private in the Royal Army Ordnance Corps
Royal Army Ordnance Corps
The Royal Army Ordnance Corps was a corps of the British Army. It dealt only with the supply and maintenance of weaponry, munitions and other military equipment until 1965, when it took over most other supply functions, as well as the provision of staff clerks, from the Royal Army Service...
to take the mount. Nevett had already won one wartime Derby on Owen Tudor
Owen Tudor (horse)
Owen Tudor was a British Thoroughbred racehorse and sire. In a career that lasted from 1940 to 1942 he ran twelve times and won six races. His most important win came as a three-year-old in the summer of 1941 when he won the “New Derby” at Newmarket...
, a horse who had also been rejected by his stable’s main jockey. Ocean Swell started a 28/1 outsider while Garden Path and Growing Confidence disputed favouritism in a field of twenty. The early pace was slow, but the field quickened just after half way and Nevett sent his horse into the lead just over three furlongs from the finish. In a "furious" finish, Ocean Swell stayed on strongly in the closing stages, showing "pluck and stamina" to win a "great fight" by a neck from Tehran, with the fast-finishing Happy Landing a short head back in third.
Ocean Swell did not race again for three months before contesting the New St Leger, in which he finished third behind Tehran and Borealis. On his final start of the year he was moved up to two and a quarter miles and showed his aptitude for extended distances by winning the Jockey Club Cup
Jockey Club Cup
The British Champions Long Distance Cup, formerly known as the Jockey Club Cup, is a Group 3 flat horse race in Great Britain which is open to thoroughbreds aged three years or older. It is run at Ascot over a distance of 2 miles...
. After the race Lord Rosebery praised his colt's speed and stamina and announced that he would stay in training with the Ascot Gold Cup
Ascot Gold Cup
The Gold Cup is a Group 1 flat horse race in Great Britain open to thoroughbreds aged four years or older. It is run at Ascot over a distance of 2 miles and 4 furlongs , and it is scheduled to take place each year in June....
as his main objective.
1945: four-year-old season
Like Ocean Swell, most of the top three-year-olds of 1944 stayed in training the following year, leading to speculation that the competition over middle and long distances would be particularly strong. Ocean Swell met Borealis on his first three starts as a four-year-old, all of which were at Newmarket. He won the April Stakes, but then finished second to the Darling-trained runner in the Wood Ditton Stakes. Ocean Swell next ran in a substitute Coronation CupCoronation Cup
The Coronation Cup is a Group 1 flat horse race in Great Britain open to thoroughbreds aged four years or older. It is run at Epsom Downs over a distance of 1 mile, 4 furlongs and 10 yards , and it is scheduled to take place each year in June....
, in which he finshed second to Borealis in a "great race", with the Oaks
Epsom Oaks
The Oaks Stakes is a Group 1 flat horse race in Great Britain open to three-year-old thoroughbred fillies. It is run at Epsom Downs over a distance of 1 mile, 4 furlongs and 10 yards , and it is scheduled to take place each year in early June....
winner Hycilla in third. Tehran, who had been unbeaten since losing to Ocean Swell in the Derby was a late withdrawal: his trainer Frank Butters
Frank Butters
Frank Joseph Arthur Butters was a racehorse trainer specialising in flat racing who trained in Austria, Italy and England in the first half of the 20th century...
did not want to risk him on hard ground before the Ascot Gold Cup.
The end of the war in Europe meant than some races were allowed to return to their traditional venues and on 7 July the Gold Cup was run at Ascot
Ascot Racecourse
Ascot Racecourse is a famous English racecourse, located in the small town of Ascot, Berkshire, used for thoroughbred horse racing. It is one of the leading racecourses in the United Kingdom, hosting 9 of the UK's 32 annual Group 1 races...
for the first time since 1939 in front of an estimated 60,000 spectators. Ocean Swell was well suited by the two and a half mile course and won by a length and a half from Tehran. He was thus the first (and remains the only) Derby winner to win the Gold Cup at Ascot since Persimmon
Persimmon (horse)
Persimmon was an outstanding British-bred and British-trained Thoroughbred race horse and sire who won the Epsom Derby in 1896. This was the first horse race ever filmed, by Robert W. Paul and Birt Acres....
in 1897 (Owen Tudor had won a substitute "Gold Cup" at Newmarket over a reduced distance).
Assessment
In their book A Century of Champions, John Randall and Tony Morris classified Ocean Swell as an “average” Derby winner, with a rating of 131.Stud career
Ocean Swell was a disappointment at stud. The only European runners of consequence he sired were the filly Sea Parrott (Yorkshire OaksYorkshire Oaks
The Yorkshire Oaks is a Group 1 flat horse race in Great Britain open to thoroughbred fillies and mares aged three years or older. It is run at York over a distance of 1 mile and 4 furlongs , and it is scheduled to take place each year in August....
) and the successful handicapper Fastnet Rock. The best of his progeny was almost certainly the gelding
Gelding
A gelding is a castrated horse or other equine such as a donkey or a mule. Castration, and the elimination of hormonally driven behavior associated with a stallion, allows a male horse to be calmer and better-behaved, making the animal quieter, gentler and potentially more suitable as an everyday...
St. Vincent
St. Vincent (horse)
St. Vincent was a Thoroughbred racehorse who won in England and in the United States where he was a Champion who set or equaled five turf course records including two new North American records....
, a minor winner in England who improved to became American Champion Male Turf Horse in 1955. Ocean Swell was put down after sustaining an injury in 1954.