New Year's Day = 6 Te Akau Wins

It has been a phenomenal start to 2020 for the tangerine team - with Te Akau NZ trainer Jamie Richards recording three wins on New Year's Day, including the Group 2 Rich Hill Mile at Ellerslie - and Te Akau Singapore trainer Mark Walker kick starting the new season in style at Kranji, with a winning treble ...

That makes a total of 10 wins in the past 48 hours for our owners - a winning quartet at Taupo (four races = half the card), a winning double at Hawke's Bay on New Year's Day, the Group 2 at Ellerslie and the hat trick at Kranji ...

The first of our New Year's Day winners was Pokuru's Gift who we are proud to be entrusted to train ...

Dwarfing his rivals, Pokuru's Gift  (4 g Rock ‘n' Pop - Pokuru Boxer, by Stravinsky) made it two from five when blitzing his rivals in the $10,000 Rating 65 1100 metres on 1 January at Hastings.

Given time by trainer Jamie Richards after winning in October at Tauherenikau, he ran well for third in the Rating 65 1200 metres on 6 December at Matamata, and his record of two wins, second, and third, is that of a talented horse.

Despite drawing the outside gate (8), and being of massive proportions, he showed foot speed to lead under jockey Ryoya Kozaki and extended clear in the straight to win by four and a quarter lengths. The victory had many similarities to his previous, where he worked forward from a wide barrier, strode along boldly, yet within himself, and pulled away to score untroubled by two and a half lengths.

In the race sponsored by Garth Best - Best Travel, Pokuru's Gift ran the 1100 metres in 1:04.5 on Dead4 footing and paid $4.80 & $1.70 on the NZ TAB tote. 

“I thought it was a hell of a good win,” Richards said. “He did a lot of work early to get across and lead, eased them, and kept up a strong gallop. For such a big horse he's got so much speed and we just have to keep placing him right.

“It's a great thrill to train another winner for Ian (Farrelly) and his family. I know they get an enormous buzz out of the horse and he's doing the job for them. Ian's a very loyal supporter of Te Akau and we love training horses for him.”

Bred and owned by Ian Farrelly, he is from the second crop of Waikato Stud stallion Rock ‘N' Pop (Fastnet Rock), who was purchased by David Ellis and won the 2000 Guineas (Gr. 1, 1600m) for the Te Akau Rock ‘N' Pop Syndicate. Pokuru's Gift is the second foal from a Stravinsky (Nureyev) mare, while his grand-dam, Pokuru Star (O'Reilly), has left three individual winners of six races. 

“Ian's a great friend of mine and Sir Peter Vela's, he's a great farmer, and it's always a thrill to see his colours winning,” Ellis said.

“Ian's a horse breeder that we've trained a lot of winners for and he's bred this horse from the family of Embellish (Savabeel), who we won the 2000 Guineas (Gr. 1, 1600m) with and he now stands at Cambridge Stud.

“Roy (Kozaki) won his first race for us on Lucky Shark (Darci Brahma) a couple of days ago at Taupo, which was his first winning ride in New Zealand. He's a good Japanese rider and it looks like he's hitting his straps now.” 

Pokuru's Gift was strapped by Baghs Singh.

Photo credit - www.raceimages.co.nz

Back