Te Akau Midweek Update

What a fantastic last fortnight Te Akau racing has had! It is just so exciting and brilliant for our owners and very encouraging for our hardworking team.

In the 10 days from 25 April - 3 May the stable has recorded 14 wins which is absolutely a credit to our team. Nothing gives us more pleasure than winning races for our owners. We couldn't achieve these results without their support, their loyalty and their belief in our team.

That tally included a Group 1 race in Australia and three stakes' races in New Zealand - what a thrill it has been to see Mark Walker win two Group 1 races for our owners in the space of a month with Belle Cheval and Geegees Mistruth. While we are sometimes labelled a syndication business, our core business is operating a racing stable, of which syndication is a part - we are always proud to be entrusted with the training of horses by private owners and studs too - so again congratulations to the owners of Belle Cheval and gee gees Mistruth, and all our other winners!

These results also mean that our New Zealand training team leads the Trainers' Premiership by every benchmark.

These results also reflect the hardworking and dedication of Mark, Sam, Hunter, Reece, Ben and every single team member across our three stables - alongside our farm team - and Jenny, Laura, Siobhan, Shanti and Julia who keep everything humming admin and marketing wise. Results like this require fantastic teamwork from our trackwork riders to the ground staff, to our vets, our farriers, float drivers - everybody plays their part. It’s just an incredible team that we have have, and we very proud of them all.

When you look at the, particularly young, talent coming through the stable, the industry has a bright future indeed and we love seeing young people flourish and achieve their goals and aspirations.

Looking to the farm - we have now finished selling our stock for the season, selling two units of steers last week. We have also finished shearing and the price we have got from the wool has just about doubled since last year. It will be the first time in a long time that we have made money out of shearing the sheep. We have done it out of necessity, not for profit, but this year we will make some money out of the wool, which is really exciting.

The main reason I run sheep on Te Akau Stud is because they are great at keeping our horse paddocks nice and tidy. I have a policy of having zero weeds and zero thistles on the whole of our farm and sheep are certainly a big help in this regard.

A big thank you to Alan Radford, who has done all my buying and selling of sheep and cattle since 1979. This year is the first year that we have had a really good year with record prices for lamb and beef.

I have never seen the farm with so much grass, and the stock are absolutely thriving, certainly a very exciting time to be a farmer. In April we had 179mls of rain at the farm, can you believe, and this has helped a lot along with the fertiliser we spread a few weeks ago.

To give you an idea of the rainfall we have had ... no wonder the paddocks are sop lush and green:

April - 179mls

March - 49mls

February - 42.5mls

January - 138.5mls

Our next big job on the farm is scanning the ewes. This is where we put a mark on the ewes with twins and singles, and then the mares that aren’t in lamb we will sell. Last year we scanned 179% so I will be interested in what we do this year. I am picking it could even be better than that because the sheep are in such good condition due to the beautiful grass we have.

For the first time in several years, we have every horse paddock in the farm full! And with a few colts coming home on Friday from their first experience of stable life and education, we will be at capacity.

All credit to the team here at Te Akau Stud doing such a good job looking after them, led by team leader Deane Lowcay and the help of his team Faith, Maddie, Grace and Ella. They really are doing such a terrific job, alongside Luke and Mick who help me run the cattle and sheep side of the farm.

I love this time of the year when we have the rising two-year-olds in the stable for the first time. It is just so exciting to hear the feedback from the riders and the team. I am very confident in the quality of yearlings we have this year, and cannot wait to further uncover their potential and capability.

There are still some shares available so if you are interested, please have a look at our website and feel free to give me a ring anytime on 021 925 151 and I can recommend a yearling that would suit what you are looking for. We have a horse for everyone, and for most budgets!

You can email Karyn at [email protected] if you are interested in joining the team, or would like some extra info on any of our horses available. Karyn can provide you with the breaker reports and any updates that have gone out since entering our stable.

With Mother’s Day coming up – what could be a greater gift for your mum than a share in a racehorse! Or even to race a horse with your mother will bring you years of fun to be had together. Reach out to Karyn and we can help you make it a special surprise for your special mum.

We have a small number of runners yet to come this week including the Grand Annual Steeplechase tomorrow at Warrnambool in which we ran the trifecta last year - Leaderboard returns to defend his title with the Mighty Spar also looking to go one better than his second placing last year. It was a terrific season last year with Mark being awarded the Jumps' Trainer of the Year title in Victoria. In New Zealand the focus will be on Rotorua this Saturday with a quartet including Savoir Faire in the Listed Rotorua Cup and My Lips Are Sealed starting in the Group 3 ITM Rotorua Stakes.

Best of luck to all our owners with runners - have a great week!