Te Akau Midweek Update

David writes:

It was interesting that I had a friend Nathan Bolton, who buys cattle for me out of Taranaki from time to time, call in yesterday.  He asked me how much rain we have had on the farm.  We have had 22 mls of rain which has seen the property green up a little but I must admit I was quite envious when he told me that most of the Taranaki had had in excess of 122mls!  It seems the further south you go from the Waikato, the more rain everyone has had in recent days - for example in Te Awamutu I understand they had 50mls. It is still quite dry in the Waikato but Te Akau Stud still has plenty of good quality grass.

Last night was one of those nights you dream about - when you just don't stop selling shares in horses.  Every call I had was a positive "yes" and we are well on our way to selling all of the shares in the horses which if course gives Karyn and me a huge thrill and is very satisfying.

Looking at our line up of yearlings, I am staggered at just how quickly these horses are selling so if you want to be part of the team and race a share in a nice colt or filly - don't wait another day - get in touch with us now.  It is heartbreaking for Karyn and me when people ring and we have to tell them that the horse is fully sold.

This afternoon we are off to the Karaka Sale complex to be part of New Zealand Bloodstock's first Open Day for people wanting to be involved in racing a share in a horse.

We have put a lot of planning into today and our daughter Julia-Rose has been busy setting everything up.  We will be there from 5pm until 8pm and we will be parading two yearlings that we have shares available in that we purchased from the Karaka Sale.

The first is Lot 182 an O'Reilly colt out of Starbelly and an Alamosa filly out of Tinsel Time Lot 757 - this filly we purchased from Nearco Stud for $55,000.

In all at the premier sale we purchased from 17 different vendors or studs - and we are just delighted with how these horse have settled in at Te Akau Stud - they are all thriving and eating up and look in terrific order.

This is a very rewarding time of the year and it has been great having Mark Walker home to be part of it all.  On Sunday we had an advertisement in the Sunday Star Times and Herald on Sunday and interestingly enough a team of Australians who were in Auckland for the Auckland 9's could see the great value for money our horses offered and we have sold almost all of the advertised horse, including shares to a new team of Australian owners - welcome!

We also had two groups of other first time Australian owners who came to Te Akau Stud today and yesterday and they all knew about the good horses that we have campaigned and won major races with in Australia - horses like Crystal Palace (Queensland Oaks), Distinctly Secret (Grand Prix Stakes, Rough Habit Plate), King's Chapel (Gold Coast Guineas), Integrate (Labour Day Cup at Eagle Farm), Te Akau Nick (Metropolitan Hcp in Sydney), Darci Brahma (Group 1 TJ Smith Stakes for 2YO's at Eagle Farm) and many others!  These are just some of the races we have won!

Wasn't the cricket amazing to watch yesterday at McLean Park?  Surely this is the best cricket team New Zealand has ever had - we have good bowlers, quality batsmen all the way down the order and we have a Captain in Brendon McCullum who has led by example and who is a inspiration. I can see the team spirit he has engendered in the team and how cohesive and focused they all are.  What I like too is that they seem to "enjoy" the opposition's company and there is no confrontation on the field like you see with some other international teams and you know who I mean!

So to our new Te Akau owner Brendon McCullum - well done on the way you are leading NZ cricket and we are really proud and excited to have your company as part of the Te Akau team.

I hope you can all come out to Karaka today to see us - we will all be there - Karyn, me, Jason, Jamie, Robyn and Julia-Rose as well as our stable rider Matt Cameron!