Te Akau Friday Update

David writes:

It has been an absolutely stunning morning at Te Akau Stud.  We were very lucky during the week to get 46 mls of rain and the farm just looks incredible.

Last week we made eight paddocks of haylage and, with the rain, all of those paddocks are starting to green up and will have beautiful fresh feed in the next week which we will use for our mares and foals. 

It has been a huge week for me and I must admit that I will be spending the weekend relaxing (he is not good at following resting orders obviously - Ed)!! 

We have been drafting cattle and sending a unit each day and we are just over the moon how heavy the cattle are killing out.  The bulls are averaging close to 380kg and the steers are all over 360kg. 

Next week it is the turn for our lambs and we will be having our first pick and I would imagine that there will be 500-600 ready to go to the works. 

It was an exciting time at the Ready to Run Sale where I bought some particularly nice horses for both of our stables.  In total I bought seven horses for $940,000 and every share in every horse has been sold. 

Five of the horses that we bought will be trialling in New Zealand and then going to Singapore to be trained.  The Murtajill/Silent Smytzer and the High Chaparral/Deduction colts will remain in New Zealand and we hope to race them in New Zealand and Australia. 

Costa Viva, our winner of the Group 1 1000 Guineas, has come through her trip in great form. She was thoroughly checked out yesterday by our vet Doug Black and it is all steam ahead for her for the remainder of the Filly of the Year series, which she currently leads.  Spellbinder likewise is enjoying her break and we are very proud of what both of these fillies have achieved this season. 

Yesterday on our home track at Matamata, Jason won another two races and at one stage his strike rate was 3.8 and finished the day on 4.  That means that for every four Te Akau starters, one is a winner.  That is a terrific achievement and shows me he is placing the right horse in the right race - and we have further nice chances in the next day or so.

This morning I had Rob McNab from the well-known Wanganui McNab family coming to discuss my plans for the farm's fertiliser for the next 12 months.  Rob has taken soil tests in the last month and we are going to discuss our application strategy.

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