Te Akau Friday Update
2 March, 2018
David writes:
It's really been the most exciting month in the history of Te Akau Racing and there is plenty more excitement still to come this weekend!
Firstly though - well done to our trainers Stephen and Jamie for notching up winner number 50 on Wednesday with Paulownia, a well bred filly that we have been entrusted to train by Coolmore Stud. She is a classy individual and expect to hear more of her.
That win brought up the team's half century for the season - currently lying second on the Trainers' Premiership, Te Akau still leads the way with the most black type races won in New Zealand (13) and the most stake money won as well.
I get an incredible thrill driving around the farm seeing the quality of the yearlings we have purchased this year - they blow me away every day as I see them develop and thrive here at Te Akau Stud. I have truly never seen so many top class youngsters on one property ever before and to think we have all these horses to train in the future is a dream come true.
It has been a pretty hectic week for us all and tomorrow we actually have three Group 1 runners in three different jurisdictions - Sydney, Melbourne and Auckland. To give you an idea how busy the team is - Jamie (just as one example) drove to Avondale for the trials on Tuesday, then to Counties on Wednesday for the races and then to Hawkes Bay for the Hastings' race meeting on Thursday. Tomorrow he flies to Sydney to oversee Melody Belle's Group 1 quest.
Melody Belle is being looked after by our senior foreperson and world-class horsewoman Kerry Jones who reports that she could not be more happy with Melody Belle.
Keeping with the 'busy team' theme, on Monday Stephen Autridge flew to Melbourne to put the finishing touches on Embellish as he heads in to tomorrow's Group 1 Australian Guineas. This colt is being looked after by another talented senior member of our team in Dan Miller. Dan is also as good a horseman as you will ever see and a fantastic judge. He is extremely happy with Embellish and Steve reports that he has never seen our handsome colt look better.
Karyn and I will represent the team at Ellerslie where we have Mongolianconqueror contesting the $1 million Group 1 NZ Derby, the race we won last year with Gingernuts. I would love to be at all three venues but sadly this is not possible (no cloning yet - Ed)!!!!
So to all of our team tomorrow - THE VERY BEST OF LUCK - I am very proud to have purchased all three of these Group 1 contenders from Karaka!
It has also been a very busy week on the farm - we are doing some major work on the Cliff's farm with about 3kms of metal being spread to allow quick access around the whole farm. We are also installing a new water system which sees a minimum of two troughs in each cattle/sheep paddock where previously we have replied on ponds. Next week we will start putting our fertiliser on with lots of superphosphate and lime being applied.
We have now sold almost every share in every yearling - interestingly though, the three yearlings in whom we still have shares available are as good a types as we have on the farm. The "final horses" to sell always intrigue us as history shows us they are usually amongst the best e.g. Sword of Osman and Avantage last year! Both stakes' winners already - so the clear message is - don't be put off!
We have welcomed huge number of visitors to the farm in the last month and now have over 85 brand new owners involved with the team - a warm welcome to you! A huge thank you too, to our long-standing client who re-invest with us every year. Your confidence in us means so much to us and we are very excited about the future.
Every runner Te Akau has tomorrow is contesting a black type race - the three Group 1 contenders as I mentioned early as well as Heroic Valour in the Group 3 Darley Plate at Ellerslie and we will also see Gris Dame line up in the Group 3 Sunline Vase there too. Both look good chances to me.
It;s also a full-on weekend for Mark Walker and our Te Akau Singapore team with a big brigade of runners this weekend at Kanji, kicking off later tonight. Mark has had a terrific start to the season which got underway in January and currently lies third on the Trainers' Premiership which he won last year and in 2015.
So to all of our owners and all of our hard working staff - at our stables in New Zealand and in Singapore, and at the stud - all the very best of luck with your runners tomorrow and ...