Te Akau Friday Update - Exciting News

David writes:

Yesterday was one of those days where everything went well.

It started at 10.00am with a visit from the Rt. Hon. Winston Peters MP, Leader of NZ First.  I drove Winston around the farm and then took the cover off Xtravagant and showed him our colt (#sexonhooves).

This is not a political view - merely a factual point - Winston has done more for racing than either National or Labour and is absolutely committed to getting the New Zealand racing industry going strongly.   When he was the Minister for Racing he was responsible for seeing the duty reduced on each bet, giving the three codes an extra $50 million per year (in today's betting).  He was behind many other positives such as increasing depreciation rates and more.  He has a genuine passion for racing and that shows through when you talk to him.

Yesterday was Jamie Richard's 100th winner for Te Akau as our co-trainer - that's quite an achievement in only 14 months of training.

In 1986 I identified Stephen Autridge when he was just 25 years of age.  In 1990 I identified Mark Walker when he was 18 and then gave him a job as our trainer when he was only 25 years old - and last year I identified Jamie Richards when he was 25 years old - there seems to be a very interesting pattern here - two now well-established, and one rising, training talent.  Each morning Jamie is out of bed at 3.15am (as are all the team) and I love seeing that level of commitment in young people being rewarded.

Yesterday Rocksun, a son of Fastnet Rock that I purchased from the Karaka Premier Sale became Steve and Jamie's 96th winner for the season.  You have no idea how proud that makes me of the whole team.

To finish the day and give us something to really celebrate, a filly that I bought privately this week from Arrowfield Stud vetted out well, ticked all the vet-check boxes and we are now the proud owners of a Smart Missile filly out of Miss Helsinki who was passed in at the Sydney sale.  Congratulations to her new owners and thank you for your stellar support - I haven't never seen a better type fo filly.

This beautiful filly is a grand daughter of the superstar Redoute's Choice mare Miss Finland and Miss Finland is one of the very best fillies that I have ever seen grace the track.  She was Champion 2YO and Champion 3YO in Australia in her year - beating out all of the top class colts and geldings of her time for those honours.  She won the Group 1 STC Golden Slipper, the Group 1 VRC Oaks, the Group 1 VRC Australian Guineas plus the Group 1 MRC 1000 Guineas at Caulfield as well as the Group 1 STC Arrowfield Stud Stakes - plus FIVE other Group races, she was also Group 1 runner up four times and placed at the elite level on another five occasions.

In total MISS FINLAND had 11 career wins (three as a two year old) from 1000m-2500m for career stakes of A$4.6 million.  Quite simply she is one of the very best fillies to ever race in Australia.  She has had two foals to race and they are both stakes' winners/performers including Street Cry filly STAY WITH ME, a recent winner of the Group 1 MRC 1000 Guineas at Caulfield.

Our new filly's pedigree goes back to another great mare called MOONSHELL who won "The Oaks" in England.  This Sadler's Wells' mare was top class.

So you can understand how very excited we all are to secure her for New Zealand!

This filly will travel to her new home at Te Akau Stud on Tuesday night and we can't wait to get her home.

It is a very mild morning today with some very light rain - great for grass growth - after some really strong frosts.  Today I will be at the Matamata stables all day and we are looking forward to Te Rapa races tomorrow ... then ... GO THE ALL BLACKS!