Ocean Beyond's early Stakes test

The general idea of a ready-to-run sale is for potential buyers to watch a horse enjoy a short sprint and from there gauge its galloping potential. But that's not quite how Daniel Bowman came to buy an Ocean Park colt last year.

The sale was for early two-year-olds, so it was assumed the 'best types' of that year would have been purchased much earlier in the year as yearlings. But some slip through when produced many months later and Bowman figured this could be one.

Ocean Beyond, who races for just the second time in Saturday's Listed McKenzie Stakes at The Valley, was not one of the more impressive gallopers in his public breeze-up, but for Bowman, he was grand in other ways.

"The breeze-up wasn't actually that impressive. It was more about the animal and the athlete," Bowman, who parted with $60,000 to secure him, said on Friday.

Ocean Beyond showed a deal of athleticism in his debut as a warm favourite at Geelong earlier this month when he sat on the speed and simply ran away for a soft victory.

"He showed us a fair bit at home, so we were pretty confident going to his debut, but it is always nice to see them do it," Bowman said.

"It's (McKenzie Stakes) a step-up but he's certainly one in the race with some scope. The others are exposed to a certain degree. If our bloke is ready for it or not, we'll find out.

"He'll definitely be up to this sort of level in time, but it would just be nice to win tomorrow and get his rating up and then we can set out a plan for the autumn."

WATCH: Ocean Beyond's win

Bowman's Warrnambool stables have produced a spate of winners this month, with seven in November from just 21 starters.

"I wish November would go for a couple more weeks to be honest," Bowman quipped.

"If you haven't got the stock you can't get the winners obviously, but we've got a bunch of nice, young ones coming through."

The stable's Group 1 winner Begood Toya Mother is sitting out the rest of 2020 in the paddock after a year which yielded no placings from eight starts - with four of those at the elite level.

But Bowman remains hopeful the horse could return to his best form after a long break.

"He's still in the paddock and we're still tossing up what we are going to do as far as a program for next year," he said.