Dreams of Ocean Park beating the best in Europe are over after an ordinary run in the Dubai Duty Free.

Ocean Park started favourite in the Group One 1800m contest after his Cox Plate win in Melbourne last spring and a Group One success at Ellerslie on March 9 but he could beat only two runners home in Dubai.

The original plan was to head to Europe for races such as the Queen Anne Stakes at Royal Ascot and the Irish Champion Stakes but his Matamata trainer Gary Hennessy said those were now abandoned.

"He raced 10 kilos under his last winning weight. The travel showed up in his lack of energy in the whole race," he told NZ Racing.

Hennessy also found heat in his foreleg the morning after his race and after a vet check he decided to bring Ocean Park back to New Zealand for a rest.

"Our plans beyond that will be either a return to Australia in the spring for another Cox Plate or whether he goes to stud, but that has yet to be talked over with my part-owners," Hennessy said.