Te Akau Friday Update

David writes:

It's great to have a holiday but I always think the best part of any holiday is coming home.

The Te Akau Stud team has done a sensational job while we were away. Everything was just spotless and the farm and all of our horses looked amazing. It was such a lovely home-coming for Karyn and me so thank you again team!

While we were away we did some alterations in our house.  All of our building work is done by George Brown. George has worked for Te Akau Stud since 1979 and is married to Diane. While we were away they celebrated 51 years of marriage.  George is 76 years old but doesn't look a day older than 60 and still works a 40 hour week. He is an amazing man and friend.

Helping George is Sam Boyd, now everybody knows who Sam is!!  He has just been in the news recently big time. Sam, who worked at Te Akau Stud for over 30 years and retired about 2 years ago, was sailing a boat from Mexico to New Zealand. In the middle of the night the boat caught fire and they had to jump ship into a life raft. The waves were 15 feet high and they were 500 miles from anywhere.

The next day the three of them were pretty happy to see a container ship arrive and rescue them. Sam reports he was never at any stage concerned !!!  He was just delighted that the container ship happened to be en route to Auckland and guess what?  it wasn't an old, rusty vessel - on the contrary, it was modern and new and the rescued trio each had their own cabin and ensuite!!

I can tell we love having Sam here to stay - he is one of the great men I have met and a dear friend of Karyn's and mine.

Today I am going to the Karaka sale as we have a couple of horses to sell and Burgundy is being paraded. Yesterday I had a good look at all my Burgundy yearlings, nine fillies and three colts and I can tell you that he is a terrific chance to make the grade as a stallion.

Yesterday I was asked to give a quote on why we keep going back to Karaka to buy our yearlings so I did some homework on our success there and it makes interesting reading.

From the Premier Sale alone we have bought four Champion 2 Year Olds, three Champion 3 Year Olds, two Horses of the Year, one Champion Middle Distance Horse, three Champion Sprinter/Milers, one Champion Stayer, one Champion Weight for Age Horse and one Singapore Polytrack Horse of the Year.

If there is anybody else with this record, I would be surprised. It is a record all of us at Te Akau are proud of delivering to our owners. Looking at the way our team is coming to hand for the coming season I am certain we can add to this wonderful tally.

On Monday Karyn, Julia-Rose and I are spending the day in Matamata at our stable and then we are going to the Te Teko trials on Tuesday. Karyn is looking forward to being back on Trackside tomorrow. Have a great weekend.