Te Akau Friday Update

David writes:

What a beautiful time of the year it is! 

I am very much enjoying driving around the Waikato district and seeing all the blossom trees in bloom. At Te Akau Stud, we have about a dozen cherry blossom trees planted on the farm and they just look amazing. The problem is that they don't last long enough, but they are very appealing to the eye when they are in full bloom. 

Yesterday, Karyn and I were invited to Cambridge Stud by Brendan and Jo Lindsay to inspect their new facilities. What an amazing set up it is.  I particularly enjoyed seeing Embellish, the Group 1 winner who I bought and we trained - what a beautiful stallion he has grown into. It was interesting that Waikato Stud's Garry Chittick also spoke highly of Embellish to me at this function yesterday, and said how he could really see him being a successful stallion. 

Embellish of course is a son of Savabeel who won the Group 1 NZ 2000 Guineas at Riccarton and was one of the best racehorses that Te Akau has ever trained. Looking at some of his foals yesterday just reinforced to me what value for money sending a mare to Embellish is at just $4000 + GST. That is unbelievable value for a stallion of his pedigree, looks and natural strength. We have eight mares going to him this season and are very much looking forward to seeing the progeny he produces.  

The New Zealand thoroughbred industry had a lot of luck the day Brendan and Jo Lindsay became involved, and this couple will go down in history as having a lot of influence in our industry through so much that they do, including contributions to charities.

It is also interesting to see that the museum that they are building at Cambridge Stud is going ahead and is about half way finished. I can't wait to see the end product and the history is it is going to hold between its walls. That is one great thing about Brendan and Jo - when they do something, gee do they do it properly!

We also visited their foaling unit yesterday, which is updated with the latest modern technology. The paddocks are all monitored with cameras which feed to a large TV screen in the unit. It is absolutely fascinating to see the amazing job they have done with their foaling paddocks and they have really turned Cambridge Stud into the best stud farm in the world that I have seen. 

Te Akau had a fabulous day of racing on Wednesday at Matamata. Karyn got a big thrill seeing Entriviere win at her first time at the races. This mare was bought and syndicated by Karyn just two weeks ago and the owners have already had a fantastic result. 

She was syndicated in less than half an hour, so there are still plenty of people out wanting to be involved in the fun of racing horses. 

Super Sid's win in the ninth race at Matamata was also a big thrill. Seeing him explode forward at 200m and watching our stable jockey Opie Bosson have his first win back on race day was just brilliant to see. 

Here is an interesting fact - we thought Super Sid was one of the best horses in our stable 12 months ago after we purchased him from the Ready to Run Sale at Karaka. However he went through a very frustrating year with a few minor setbacks, including soundness and several attitude issues that we had to get to the bottom of.

Our trainer Jamie Richards and our team at Matamata have worked their magic with patience and have done a fantastic job to get this horse back on track and his head in the right space. He is very closely related to Te Akau Shark, and it looks like the potential he has shown all along is finally going to be delivered. 

Super Sid's win was the ninth win for Te Akau Racing in five days -
well done team!

Now that we are out of COVID-19 alert level 2 restrictions in the Waikato, Karyn and I are travelling to Matamata this afternoon to have a team celebration with all the amazing crew at our stable to congratulate them on winning the Premiership last season. We have lots of reasons to celebrate, including the fact that we had 11 Group 1 wins as well.  I am also looking forward to seeing our horses in the barns too.  

Today at Te Akau Stud we are docking the lambs that have been grazing our plantain crop and then we only have two days of docking next week before we are completely finished. The grass is really starting to take off now and with a forecast set for a high of 19 degrees and 8mls of rain yesterday is just what the Te Akau Farmer was looking for. 

Hope you have all had a great week and best of luck to our owners who have runners over the weekend. 

Go the Tangerine !     

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