Quite Some Thursday

A stable is definitely not about one horse - all of Te Akau's horses are important to us.  Every now and then however, you have a horse who just captures people's hearts and their heads - a horse that weaves magic and sets the blood pumping.

That's our boy Xtravagant and we are overwhelmed by the public support for him - #sexonhooves has such a fan Club in New Zealand and an army of supporters in Australia too.

He is beautiful, almost black and brave - he is the loveliest horse to deal with and Steve and Jamie and the whole team have done a wonderful job getting him to the stage where he is now favourite for the A$750,000 Group 1 Australian Guineas tomorrow.  A special mention to his best mate Daniel Miller, his constant travelling companion who is such a talented horseman and rider and who is also such an important key to Blake's success.

Some people suggest we are talking him up - how wrong could they be - we don't need to do any talking, the horse speaks for himself on the track and the interest in him is unprecedented for us.  On arrival yesterday the press corps was waiting, the original media conference the VRC called having been put off due to our travel plans being thrown into disarray.  There is a fascination with Blake that can't be contained - look at our facebook page and see the support.

Is it because of his eight length demolition of the field in the Groyp 1 NZ Guineas, smashing Turn Me Loose's race record time? Is it because of his 8.5 length clean up in the Group 1 NRM Sprint against the older horses?  Is it because he is a simply stunning individual - or is it a mixture of all of these factors and of course - THE X FACTOR?

Whatever it is - thank you, thank you, thank you - for sharing the dreams and the hopes and the aspirations of his wonderful owners and of our Te Akau team.  If he does well, it is a fantastic result for New Zealand - and as someone pointed out on our facebook page - he has unfinished business, his brother losing his Group 1 in the inquiry room.

He travelled well, cutting a swish figure in his compression suit - not sure where Steve, Dan and Matt has put theirs?

Today Matt  departs from New Zealand to pilot the colt he knows so well - tomorrow to a large degree it all comes down to Matt and some real luck.  The planning for the day is almost done, now we need that Group 1 luck on our shoulder.  Don't be mistaken - this is a red hot field - one of the best seen in years - great New Zealand horses - O'Reilly, Zonda, Darci Brahma have not been able to claim first place on the podium, but be sure New Zealand we will be doing our very best.  It is not easy to take the Australians on, on their home turf and win - they will make this task as difficult as they possibly can.

We are overwhemled and humbled by the support.  Do we wear our hearts on our sleeves with Blake?  Absolutely and completely - we are so very proud of him - go get them Blake, we know you will do your best our beautiful boy #sexonhooves

Across today we will post some pictures from yesterday - we hope you love them as much as we do (thanks Julia-Rose)!

PS if you look closely at the main picture you will see the media contingent in the reflection of his eye!