Six Wins in 48 Hours

David writes:

I never get sick of saying this - yes Te Akau had another a truly great weekend!

Six winners in 48 hours - three in New Zealand and three in Singapore - however out of all of this the best news was that Matt Cameron is going to be 100% after his shocking looking fall.  He is a bit sore and shaken but is otherwise 100% which is a huge relief for everyone.

Matt is a very important member of the team and has won three Group 1 races for us already this season.

Obviously the highlight of our weekend amongst the six winners was the truly wonderful achievement by Xtravagant - yes to win a Group 1 weight-for-age against the older horses and the best field of sprinters we have seen in a very long time and by eight lengths is quite remarkable.  Even better, Matt only needed to give him one slap with the whip.

It was just so exciting for everyone, with many of Xtravagant's owners on course, and we were all very relieved that our carefully thought out plan came off.   I was thrilled for the owners of Xtravagant or 'Blake' as we call him (named after our intrepid Kiwi adventurer Sir Peter Blake).  They are a world class team of owners who are just so supportive of us.  They support, they encourage, they celebrate and most of all, everything they do, they do with style.  They all have the same philosophy as me "win with style and lose with grace".  Yes when things didn't go our way at Trentham they took the defeat on the chin so it was extra special to see Blake win so well - and doesn't Matt Cameron ride this colt so well, he knows him inside out.

I was delighted for all the team at Te Akau Stud and Te Akau Racing - everyone contributes so much to all of our horses, they all work so hard to help produce these types of victories so well done to them.  Also a special congratulations to Dan Miller who looks after Blake and will travel with him to Australia in the next fortnight.

One of the most striking features of Blake, outside of his stunning good looks, is the manner in which he shoots out of the starting stalls - actually in Wellington when he jumped, the crowd applauded, just as they did when he returned on Saturday at Te Rapa.  I just love the fact he always finishes up two lengths in front after two strides.

Matt has learnt a lot about this colt and rates him beautifully and even though he was taken on in front, Matt held him together, nursed him around the turn, got him on the right leg, balanced him up and then went for home.  When he did, the acceleration was explosive and it was very interesting to listen to the comments of the beaten jockeys.

It is always a challenge for a syndicate manager when you get a good colt - on one hand you want to promote the colt for its future stallion career, on the other hand if you hype a horse up there can be a long way to fall.  I always try and let the horse do the talking.

Blake will have his next start at Flemington in the Australian Guineas - an A$750,000 Group 1 mile.  If he won this race - and it will be a great field - his value will be enormous for a future stud career.  Just to give you an idea - a horse like So You Think had a half share sold in him for A$25 million.  Vancouver sold for over A$40 million - and there are many examples.

Our aim is now to travel Blake and who knows? He could well race at Royal Ascot in 18 months if he kept stepping up.  I don't think distance matters too much for him 1200m, 1400m, 1600m and even 2000m will not be a problem.

Last night I had a call from champion jockey Shane Dye.  Shane has just been inducted last week into the New Zealand Racing Hall of Fame.  He reads racing for a living and he told me that, after watching every race Blake has had, he doesn't think that 2000m would be a problem.

Over the years I have seen many great horses win from 1200m-2000m - in fact the great Showgate won over 1200m, 1600m and 2000m in the same week.  Phar Lap won 1600, 2000m, 2400m and 3200m in the same week after he won the Melbourne Cup - now I am certainly not comparing horses now with these legends, only showing that top horses can go a bit further than you think.

I also get a great thrill out of winning a maiden race and yesterday was no exception when Skyscraper won at Matamata.  I bought this horse out of the Karaka Premier Sale for just $25,000 and his owners have been very patient with him - so I was thrilled for them.  Skyscraper became Steve and Jamie's 60th winner for the season - a remarkable performance!

Almost three years ago I was put into an induced coma at the Gold Coast.  I was in that coma for eight days and while I was recuperating, I set some goals on what I wanted to achieve.  Despite the doctors at the time asking me to slow down, Karyn and I set out what I wanted Te Akau to achieve.

The first one was to win a Trainers' Premiership in Singapore and in New Zealand in the same season.  The specialist assigned to me again reiterated slowing down, even suggesting that I not buy too many horses.  However Mark and I bought 50 that year and now Steve and Jamie are 12 wins in front on the New Zealand Trainers' Premiership and of course Mark won his in 2015.  It is only going to keep getting better too as we have a very strong team to race in the next few months.

So with Chadsdale (well done to stable stalwart Stan Painton), Xtravagant and Skyscraper winning in New Zealand - not to be outdone, Mark and Gus and our Singapore team had three winners at Kranji and it was terrific to see Hardcore Rock (who I bought at Karaka) also salute the judge and claim his second Singapore win by a convincing three lengths.

Yesterday we all went to New Zealand Bloodstock's Open Day at Karaka.  This is a day that NZB started last year that promotes racehorse ownership.  We took a super colt by Darci Brahma out of the Cape Cross mare Kudamm and paraded him - and we have sold five shares in him already.  Thanks to our great support team - Julia-Rose who put everything together with Robyn, Katy and Jason who looked after the colt and it was great to have Jamie,, Sinead and Hayley there too.

Now to the track at Te Rapa - I have always been of the opinion that tracks don't want to be like concrete.  We want horses to be able to run every two to three weeks and they can't do that when the tracks are too firm/hard - there is too much wear and tear on their joints and they can jar  up.  Besides it would look terrible if a track was never watered - there would be dust everywhere plus a brown track that just looks awful.

On 6 February, the first day at Te Rapa (Darci Brahma Guineas' day), I knew that the track would be too firm.  There was 60mls of rain forecast for Thursday/Friday pre raceday and it never came.  With so much rain forecast, track management decided not to water the track.  This call was understandable.  I actually heard many trainers complain that the track was too hard and they were right.   This week with no rain forecast, track management over-reacted in my view and put too much water on - but where their big mistake came, in my view, was the watering of the track late on Friday night.

I believe that a track should only be watered after acceptances in exceptional circumstances.  Water early in the week for sure but in summer the track should be somewhere between a 3-3.5 reading.  This sounds easy to achieve but in a climate where we get 50 inches of rain a year, it is not a simple task to please everyone and track staff quite simply made an error of judgement putting 10mls of water on the Te Rapa track on Friday between 9pm and midnight.  The track would have been beautiful without this but don't lose sight of the fact that the Te Rapa track has been the best track in the north, if not New Zealand, for the past ten years or more.

The real question I think needs to be asked is how did they come up with a Good3 in the first place?  That is what the public wants to know and all licence holders deserve to know.

Aside from the track, all credit must go to GM Ken Rutherford and the Board for putting on such a great day's racing - well done team!

Premierships are based on performances during each racing season (August 1st - July 31st). The jockey and trainer with the most wins at the end of the season are the Premiership winners. These statistics are updated daily.