Te Akau Friday Update

David writes:

After an enjoyable five days spent at the races and sales in Australia, I arrived home from Sydney late Wednesday afternoon.

We had two runners at Royal Randwick on Derby Day, Probabeel and In A Twinkling, who both ran in the two big events (Sires and Derby), and they both went super races for fifth place on a track that neither liked or handled particularly well. Gosh they have had some rain in Sydney!

Then when I went to the Easter Sale, I couldn't stop thinking how lucky I was to purchase so many yearlings at Karaka, as the prices at the Inglis Sydney sales were through the roof!

I went to A$750,000 on a Savabeel filly (Lot 98), A$450,000 on an Iffraaj filly (Lot 163) and A$650,000 on a Pierro filly (Lot 179).  

It was a hugely strong sale and reminded me that Karaka was excellent buying this year - we really bought top quality yearlings at very good prices.l

Racing and breeding is certainly booming in Australia, and the great news is we are only three hours away.

Our trainer Jamie Richards heads back to Australia this afternoon, to see Probabeel work tomorrow morning, and then he is off to Sydney Cup and Queen Elizabeth Stakes' day tomorrow.

We have Avantage taking on the best sprinters in Australia in the $1 million Group 2 Arrowfield Stakes for three year olds where she is currently second favourite. Opie Bosson, our stable jockey, is travelling back to ride her.

Following this, Avantage will then have a week off before she travels up to Brisbane where races like the Stradbroke will be on her programme.

My instinct is that Avantage is looking for further than 1200m now, but the Arrowfield is the only suitable race for her. 

With Winx having her final race this weekend, the course is a total sell out, however my wife Karyn and most of Avantage's owners will be there to cheer our exciting filly on. 

Several yearlings that have been broken in here at Te Akau Stud have since progressed over to our Matamata Stables for the second phase of their early education.

This morning, Jamie told me he thinks he has found a very exciting colt, and yet, you wouldn't believe that there are still four shares available in him!

He is a Savabeel colt, out of Cool ‘n' Sassy, and only cost $150,000. Check him out on our website - Lot 649. He is a beautiful moving colt with a good pedigree, and we expect him to be in the Karaka Million.

As you know, Savabeel can do no wrong and Te Akau has the best record of any stable with the progeny of Savabeel, as Mark Chittick of Waikato Stud told me recently.

We don't expect the availability of these shares to last very long, so if you are interested in being involved with a good colt, I would suggest calling me this morning to avoid disappointment - 021 925 151.

Yesterday, I received the best present that I have had in a long time - 28mls of rain fell at Te Akau Stud. This is just brilliant for the farm, especially for all the fertiliser that has been going on.

We have a few runners today at Rotorua, and I have to say, I believe NZTR have made a mistake NOT splitting the two-year-old race today.

With eight horses on the ballot, NZTR could have easily split the race and had two races. These poor decisions are made by people who do not race horses or simply just don;'t have the understanding. Quite frankly, they obviously do not have a clue that the next Maiden 2YO race in the north isn't until May - how frustrating is that!?

Let me ask you this - if the people at NZTR were paying training fees, do you think they would make us wait until May for the next two-year-old race? It is just bloody ridiculous. The two-year-old race today should have been split!

We would like to wish the very best of luck to our owners today and across weekend, especially to the owners who have travelled over to Australia to watch Avantage race - GO THE TANGERINE!!

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