Surfers Paradise was a New Zealand

New Zealand

New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...

 Thoroughbred

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 who is best remembered for winning the Cox Plate in 1991. By Crested Wave, Surfers Paradise was named after Queensland's iconic beachside strip

Surfers Paradise, Queensland

Surfers Paradise is a suburb on the Gold Coast in Queensland, Australia. At the 2006 Census, Surfers Paradise had a population of 18,501....

.

At two and three, he won 10 of his 13 starts, including the New Zealand 2000 Guineas

New Zealand 2000 Guineas

The 2000 Guineas is a set-weights Thoroughbred horse race for three-year-old horses run over a distance of 1600 m at Riccarton Park in Christchurch, New Zealand...

, the New Zealand Derby

New Zealand Derby

The New Zealand Derby is a set-weights Thoroughbred horserace for three-year-old, run over a distance of 2,400 metres at Ellerslie Racecourse in Auckland, New Zealand. It is held on the first Saturday in March, as the opening day of Auckland Cup Week. From 2009, it was run for a purse of $2.2...

, the Air New Zealand Stakes, and the Rosehill Guineas

Rosehill Guineas

The Rosehill Guineas is an Australian Thoroughbred horse race run annually in March at Rosehill Gardens Racecourse in Sydney. A race for three-year-olds at set weights, it is contested on turf over a distance of 2000 metres .-Distance:...

, but finished sixth, as 10/9 favourite (approximately $2.10), in the AJC Derby when attempting to win his ninth race in a row. At four, Surfers Paradise mixed his form in the early part of the spring, with unplaced runs on wet tracks interspersed with seconds to Rough Habit

Rough Habit

Rough Habit was a New Zealand-bred Thoroughbred racehorse who won 11 Group One races on both sides of the Tasman, and won New Zealand's Horse of the Year Award in 1992 and 1995....

 in the Mudgway Stakes

Mudgway Stakes

The Challenge Stakes is a Thoroughbred horse race run at Hastings Racecourse in Hawke's Bay and is New Zealand's first Group One race of the season...

 and Castletown

Castletown (horse)

Castletown is a New Zealand thoroughbred racehorse who won over $2 million in prize money and is best known for winning one of New Zealand's toughest staying tests, the Wellington Cup, on three occasions. He had over 100 starts, from two to eight years of age, including a record 13 races over...

 in the Kelt Capital Stakes

Kelt Capital Stakes

The Kit Ormond Memorial Spring Classic is a Thoroughbred horse race run at Hastings Racecourse in Hawke's Bay and is New Zealand's richest weight-for-age horse race...

. As a result, Surfers Paradise was an outsider, at 14/1, for his Australian reappearance in the Cox Plate. Entering Moonee Valley's short home straight, an audible roar breaks out from the crowd as Super Impose

Super Impose

Super Impose was a New Zealand bred Thoroughbred racehorse who was inducted into the Australian Racing Hall of Fame. In a career spanning 74 starts, Super Impose won eight Group One races and a then Australasian record $5.6 million in prize money...

 races to the lead, and dies away to silence as Surfers Paradise takes over midway down the straight. The trainer of the runner-up, Lee Freedman

Lee Freedman

David Lee Freedman is a prominent Australian racehorse trainer. In partnership with brothers Anthony, Michael, and Richard, he has been a prolific winner of Australia's major races in past 20 years, with four Golden Slippers, four Caulfield Cups, two Cox Plates, and five Melbourne Cups,...

, quipped that it was the first time anything had ever come from behind to beat Super Impose. Freedman later reflected that it was a 'funny feeling' in that, while he would have preferred to win, he was 'happy' that the O'Sullivans (trainers Paul and Dave and jockey Lance) had won because he had always had friendly relations with them and they had finished second in three previous runnings of the race - with Shivaree (1979), (Our) Waverley Star

Waverley Star

Waverley Star was a New Zealand Thoroughbred racehorse who is best remembered for finishing second to Bonecrusher in the 1986 Cox Plate - widely referred to as the 'race of the century'. Waverley Star, who was known as Our Waverley Star in Australia to distinguish him from a 1976 foaling of the...

 (1986), and Horlicks

Horlicks (horse)

Horlicks was an outstanding Thoroughbred racemare from New Zealand. She won the internationally-contested 1989 Japan Cup in a world record time of 2:22 for 2,400 metres - a remarkable feat given that many of the world's classic races, such the Belmont Stakes, are run over this distance...

 (1988). Surfers Paradise became the third New Zealand Derby winner - after Bonecrusher

Bonecrusher (horse)

Bonecrusher Is a retired champion New Zealand Thoroughbred racehorse who was widely admired in both Australia and New Zealand. Bred by Bill Punch, his dam's sire was a son of a French champion, Tantieme. Bonecrusher was purchased by Peter Mitchell for just $3,250 at the Waikato Yearling Sales,...

 (1985) and Castletown (1989) - to pass $2 million in prizemoney. After this preparation, Surfers Paradise had a further 22 starts in New Zealand, and won six races, including the Hawke's Bay Cup. In three subsequent visits to Australia, however, he finished near the tail of the field in each of his six starts.

After running his last race in Australia, in April 1994, Surfers Paradise was sent to the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

, where he contested poor quality races and died from a heart condition in the late-1990s.