Te Akau Midweek Update

David writes:

I was having a cup of coffee in my office this morning just before 5.00am when the phone rang.

"Good morning David, it is Majestic Horse Floats here and we are on time to arrive at Te Akau Stud with five fillies from Sydney for you.  We will be at Te Akau by 6.15am."

Well I have unloaded these five girls with the team and they have all arrived safely.  I am just so excited that Te Akau Racing will have such top quality horses to train this coming season!

The reason Karyn and I went to Sydney is this - I want Te Akau to train horses that I can be truly proud of.  Horses that if for some reason we cannot sell the shares in, we are happy and proud to own ourselves.  I did this at Karaka and such was the interest, we have done this again at Sydney.

The only way we are going to train these top fillies is to go and buy them and then back ourselves to sell the shares in them.  I am so lucky to be able to do this as a business, combining my love for racing as my business - how many people are this lucky in life??  Karyn and I certainly feel we are!!

At the Karaka sale this year we bought 30 yearlings and they were sold in full in about four weeks - so I thought we would buy these Sydney fillies so that we had shares in horses available throughout the autumn - and shares are already selling very quickly.

These Australian girls are by the very top sires you will find in this part of the world: Redoute's Choice, Pierro, Zoustar and Fastnet Rock.  While Redoute's Choice and Fastnet Rock, both Champion Sires, do not need any introduction, Zoustar and Pierro as stallions might.  Zoustar is the third leading two year old sire in Australia - his oldest progeny are only two years of age so he is an incredibly exciting young sire.  Pierro is also on fire and already this season, he has had a Group 1 Oaks' winner and a Group 1 Derby winner.  He is held in very high regard by all of the trainers in Australia.

I have put these fillies into a beautiful grass paddock where they will stay for the weekend and on Monday, we will start breaking them in.

It is full-on at Te Akau Stud at the moment as we are in the process of breaking in and educating 16 yearlings.  I am thrilled to report that we have the best group of young horses ever seen at Te Akau Stud so best of luck to all our owners who have invested in these magnificent young racehorses.

At the farm we are waiting for the weather to clear as we are ready to start shearing so a few fine days would be very welcome.

The stable is busy too at Matamata - although a number of our horses are spelling in readiness for Spring racing, the yearlings once broken in, head in to the stable for further education and so it's all brand new to them.  We are really lucky to have such a skilled and dedicated team that handles and guides these youngsters.  As you will see below, our team has really been in outstanding form this season - Te Akau currently leads the way with stake money won and also Group and Listed races won (16) - that tally has broken our previous record of 15 for the season.  Our strike rate as a major stable is also nothing short of outstanding!

Well done team - and go the tangerine!

Premierships are based on performances during each racing season (August 1st - July 31st) - NZTR 18.4.18