Te Akau Friday Update

David writes:

On Wednesday I visited Jo and Brendan Lindsay's Cambridge Stud where I inspected some foals that have recently been born there.  I also saw their yearlings and I was incredibly impressed with the progeny of Sword of State.

Gee this stallion is a serious chance to be a success story - he is almost fully booked this season – so if you have a mare that you want to go to a stallion, at a very realistic service fee, make sure you check out his credentials.

Te Akau has sent six mares to him this season, and three to Embellish and two to Almanzor.

I clearly remember when I bought him - I had purchased a promising I Am Invincible filly earlier in the session and then this Snitzel colt who I also rated highly.  Of course, they went on to be named Imperatriz and Sword of State, both Group 1 winners, and now both in the next chapter of their lives after very successful racing careers.

While I was there, I was able to catch up with our Group 1 winner, and NZB Filly of the Year Amarelinha and her brand new Snitzel foal!  Cambridge Stud purchased this mare through Gavelhouse Plus at the end of her racing career, so it's wonderful to see her have every opportunity to also be a top class broodmare.  That's them in the main photo.

This past week another Te Akau Group 1 winning mare Romancing The Moon was also offered on Gavelhouse Plus - I bought her for $50,000 at Karaka, she won $372,230 in her 19 starts, which included five wins and ten other placings.  She was only out of the money on four occasions.  In a wonderful result for her owners, she sold on Tuesday for $300,000.

It's been a patchy week of weather on the farm - glorious earlier in the week but a lot of rain overnight.  I have however noticed that with the longer days and the warmer afternoons, the horses are really thriving and losing their winter coats very quickly.

Yesterday we finished docking all our lambs and at the same time we drenched the ewes and the lambs, as well as vaccinated the lambs. We finished up with a lambing percentage of 152% which is a fantastic result. The lambs too are really thriving and doing well.

The Spring grass is just starting to come away now and all the cattle in great shape. Our buyer Alan Radford is buying about 80 yearling steers every week for me at the moment and these are averaging just over $1,200.

The team is gearing up for another busy weekend of top class racing - on both sides of the Tasman.

Unfortunately the rain has seen wintery track conditions continue to be order of the day in the Waikato so we have needed to scratch a number of our runners today from the Te Rapa meeting.  However we still have a nice team ready to compete at the Waikato Thoroughbred Racing's meeting.

Tonight we will see last start Flemington Listed winner Bellatrix Star chase further Australian black type as she steps out at The Valley under the lights in a very competitive Group 3 Ladbrokes Scarborough Stakes.  She will again be ridden by our former apprentice Mick Dee who rode a perfect race I thought to win on her last start.

It's a Group 1 Saturday at The Bay, with Skew Wiff leading the charge in the Group 1 Arrowfield Stud Plate.  It won't be easy for her as she hasn't been favoured by a good draw, but she is happy and well and has the services of stable rider Opie Bosson.  

We will also have last season's multiple group-winning juvenile Captured By Love take on the boys in the Group 2 Hawkes Bay Guineas with Warren Kennedy to ride.  Unfortunately a very small hold up means Unbridled Joy won't take his place in that same race, but already stakes' placed this campaign, we think he is still in for a good season ahead.

Riccarton is also firmly on our radar on Saturday too as there countdown to the NZ Cup Carnival takes serious shape.  Hunter Durrant and our southern team is flying with 12 wins already this season - Mark Walker has been in Christchurch since Thursday and is delighted with the progress the team is making.

There is no question that Te Akau owners have a huge advantage with us having stables in Matamata, Riccarton and Cranbourne in Victoria.  it opens up a world of opportunities and we will certainly be making the most of them for our owners.

We had some exciting 2YOs jump out yesterday for our Australian stable at Flemington and we have some very precocious types who will certainly race before Christmas.  I know that our assistant trainer Ben Gleeson is excited by their prospects.

In New Zealand we will also have a serious lineup of 2YOs heading to the Matamata trials on Tuesday week so keep an eye out for them.

Meantime, at the other end of the spectrum, there are only two more weekends of Singapore racing to come before the Club and racing ceases to exist.

It is really sad to see what is happening in Singapore. Over many years, racing in Singapore has been a huge success and at one stage was even bigger than Hong Kong. The Club used to always race twice a week and it was a great place for owners to have horses. 

I have always thought the Singapore government over many years was one of the best in the world – that its nation was such a vibrant and safe place to live. It appeared to me always as a country that was really well run by its government however the way the government and the racing industry leaders have managed thoroughbred racing in the last two years is an absolute disgrace!

We were told racing was being closed down because the government needed the land for housing which is absolute nonsense. The previous racecourse was at Bukit Timah - it was closed down and the Club moved to Kranji because - you guessed it -  they said they needed the land at Bukit Timah for housing and yet it remained undeveloped for years.

About two years ago I went to Singapore and had meetings with the senior leaders of the Singapore Turf Club where I was assured that racing was going to redevelop and go from strength to strength . I was told that stakes and owner subsidies were definitely going to increase, and that it was going to be a very exciting time to be involved in Singapore racing. We committed further horses to our stable, and within eight weeks it was announced that it was all being closed up. If that is not mismanagement, I don’t know what is.

It was all really sad – Te Akau had huge success in Singapore from time time we established our stable in October 2010. Our stable was always full with the capacity 60 horses allowed and Mark Walker won four Trainers' Premierships and was also named Champion Trainer on each occasion. The prize money was just fantastic but through a lack of initiative and letting the casinos rule, we have now seen the demise of a once great industry - established on 4 October 1842, the Club and racing will all be finished in two weeks’ time.

When Mark Walker returned to New Zealand from Singapore to take over Te Akau Racing again, Donna Logan was employed as our trainer at Kanji.  Donna has done a great job and it is sad for her and her family to have to say farewell to a country they enjoyed living and working in, but it's good for New Zealand racing that she will be coming home.

I would like to sincerely thank all our owners who supported us in Singapore and helped achieve the incredible results that we did.  Our priority has of course been the safe re-homing of all our horses, and Karyn has been working closely with Donna on this.  It is so difficult for the team to farewell these horses one by one as they are exported, but we take comfort in knowing we have found new homes where they will be cared for and respected.

Looking back to New Zealand - other good news for the industry was the wonderful way the Ellerslie track raced last Saturday. To get good tracks through August/September leading into the spring is going to be a big help to everybody moving forward, as with the weather conditions, it can making preparing horses a nightmare, especially when trials are also so often cancelled.

Karyn and I want to finally say a massive thank you to all of our owners and stable friends who supported the recent Give A Little fundraising for our much loved team member Lauren.  Lauren has a health battle on her hands with Stage 4 melanoma and the drugs that she crucially needed, costing $80,000 were not funded.

There is a magic about the care and compassion of our industry in times of trouble and to see the sum raised in less than 48 hours made us all very emotional - we know especially for Lauren, it was an incredible weight off her shoulders - so from the bottom of our hearts, thank you to everyone who was able to contribute.

Well it's just started to rain again at the farm - time to get back out there - best of luck to all our owners with runners this weekend!