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Cambridge trainer Stephen Marsh felt he had a better than average chance to take out the feature sprint on the card at Te Rapa on Saturday but it wasn’t with the eventual winner Oceania.

Marsh favoured the chances of stable runner Barbaric over the four-year-old daughter of Pins but hadn’t counted on the tenacity of the promising mare who was resuming from a three month break in the Modern Transport Engineering sponsored event.

“I would be lying if I said I thought she was a winning chance,” admitted Marsh immediately after the race.

“I did expect a cheeky race from her though and if she was hitting the line for third or so then I would have been happy.

“Once she got to the outside she powered home and won really well.

“It’s a great result for the staff who own a fair piece of her along with Steve James and his brother, who have been tremendous clients of the stable, so I’m delighted.”

After a sluggish start that saw the mare settle at the rear of the field, rider Danielle Johnson improved her out wide in the middle stages of the race to issue a challenge as the leaders swung for home. Angled to the outside of the track Oceania found a strong kick to forge to the lead with 150 metres to run and comfortably hold the late challenge of track specialist Spin Doctor who closed gamely for second ahead of Flower Bomb.

“She won really well in the end as Stephen’s instructions were to get back and let her find the line and she did that nicely,” said Johnson.

“It’s got a bit rough on the inside now so I opted to come out to the better ground and it worked well.

“She’s going to be a pretty handy horse leading into the spring so it’s onwards and upwards from here.”

Marsh also reported that race favourite Barbaric had failed to handle the heavier than expected track although he pulled up well after the race.