Sports club mates live dream of fairytale end
FOR every oil- rich sheik or high- flying banker who has had a Melbourne Cup runner, there is a story like the men and women from the Bonbeach Sports Club who can complete a Cup dream.
The syndicate of 29 Bonbeach members chipped about $ 4000 for a small share in $ 70,000 buy Oceanex.
The motley crew from the suburb 30km southeast from Melbourne’s CBD struck gold when Oceanex won a Melbourne Cup ticket by claiming the Andrew Ramsden in May.
What started as a bit of fun between mates — and a way to raise funds for club renovations and upkeep — is now the ultimate Melbourne Cup dream and potential rags to riches fairytale.
“Going back a while, the Bonbeach Sports Club got approval from council to renovate and upgrade our clubrooms,“club stalwart Stephen “Cocky” Cochrane says
“A lot of people follow the horses in our club and we thought how good would it be if we could start up a racing club and sell shares where we would own a few horses and then donate some of the prizemoney back to the club.
“There was virtually no income coming in through the clubrooms at the time, so we needed money to help pay running costs. Mick Price is a sponsor of our club, so we wanted to show a bit of support for Mick as well.”
The Oceanex story did not start with much promise — she ran last of four in a trial at Geelong in January 2018. But as her experience and the distances increased the New Zealand- bred daughter of 2012 Cox Plate winner Ocean Park started to thrive.
Price, who co- trains with Michael Kent Jr, hopes she can surge to a surprise victory and be a life- changer for the good folk at Bonbeach.
Oceanex is a $ 67 roughie and it would be a surprise if she could win, but stranger things have happened.