Te Akau Midweek Update

David writes:

Karyn and I have had a marvellous first week of our annual holiday. It has been great having Lydia and Mitch here with us and it has been very sad to say goodbye to them tonight.  They are flying back to London and we won't see them for a year!

Even though we are on holiday, we are still living and dreaming our business and already we are planning our next owners' days at the stable in the north and in Christchurch in the south in November.

We have decided that every year we will have a cocktail party in the South Island for our southern owners as we get huge support from that part of the world - and when you think of the success that Te Akau has had at Riccarton, winning more than twice the black type races there than any other stable - the South is Te Akau's second home!

Our Matamata Owner's Day will be hosted around the Ready to Run Sale time so that it coincides with Mark Walker being back in New Zealand - and all of our owners will of course be invited.  Likewise with our cocktail party in Christchurch just prior to Cup Week - all our South Island owners will be invited and any owners from the North who happen to be there will be heartily welcomed too!

Karyn and I intend to have many more owners' events in the future.

It was a very good story that our stable manager Jeff Dore wrote on the arrival last week of a rising 2YO and a rising 3YO - the rising 3YO is an Encosta de Lago filly out of Grand Echezeaux (so a half sister to Darci Brahma and Burgundy).  She will be raced by her breeder Sir Peter Vela and she is in the same stall as Princess Coup and King's Rose!

The rising 2YO is her half brother by O'Reilly who was as good a type to break in as you will ever see.  Now named Grandeur, this colt is being further educated before going out for a spell and we will look to trial him in January.

I established Te Akau Racing in 1985 and this is the most exciting time in our history I believe.  We have easily the best staff and the best line up of young horses ever and we are already making plans for each horse - we treat every horse in our stable as an individual.  We understand their temperament, their progress, their quirks and their needs - that is what makes a really successful stable.

Meanwhile back at Te Akau Stud, everything is going extremely well - it has still been pretty mild for July and Sam Boyd reports that the grass is still growing and the horses are doing exceptionally well in their spelling paddocks.

I followed the Tuesday trials in New Zealand very closely - isn't it sad that we don't have an all-weather track to trial on at this time of the year?  Running 25 or 30 heats on a grass course proper does enormous damage and takes months to repair.

Wouldn't it be terrific if all trials and mid week racing in June. July and August could be held on an all-weather track?  Then we could start Spring racing on beautiful grass surfaces - I have been pushing for this for years but even the trainers themselves can't agree on it!  Mind you all credit to the Waikato Racing Club for looking to develop its inside track for trials in order to alleviate this problem.

My view is where you have a region that has 50-60 inches of rainfall a year and you need to race 52 weeks every year then this industry needs an all-weather track.

Our industry leaders need to show leadership and get moving!