Te Akau Midweek Update

David writes:

November is one of my favourite months of the year and today the Te Akau farmer was in a very good mood as we had 15mls of rain this morning.

It isn't because we are short of grass as we have plenty of that, it's because we have a large number of cattle on and a lot of sheep and it's  healthy for the moisture to stay in the ground so rain each week at this time of the year is important.

This week we are selling the first of our ox and they are weighing in like lead coming out at about 360kg making them worth nearly $2200 each which is similar to last year.  However in general the immediate outlook for beef is a little bit reserved mainly due to the huge number of dairy cows that have been killed in the last three months.  This has the effect of flooding the beef market and bringing quotas into the equation for the first time in about ten years. The outlook for beef next year is extremely exciting and it is predicted that there is going to be a general shortage of meat from April /May onwards pushing the prices up considerably.

This week we have started shearing - we have about 6000 sheep including the lambs to shear. We have a six-stand woolshed but everything came to a halt this morning when the rain came. Overall the farm looks a picture and stock are doing extremely well with the bulls putting on about 2.35 kgs per day and the steers 2 kgs.

Today Hawke's Bay fatstock buyer Ken Browne bought me 50 well bred yearling steers from the Hawke's Bay which averaged $2.97 per kg, so a 300kg steer is arriving at Te Akau Stud  for about $900.  Alan Radford has also bought me cattle from Frankton and we have bought about 100 yearling fresian bulls privately.

This week we have 10 paddocks shut up for haylage which we will make in about 10 days time so the rain on those paddocks this morning will help to thicken the grass and be a big assistance.

We are training three particularly nice young horses at Te Akau Stud.  Alert is a Zabeel  gelding out of Kay's Awake - this horse showed a tremendous amount of potential but unfortunately bowed a tendon and we have given him plenty of time to get over this, his owners have been so patient.  Our vet Dr Doug Black has given him the all-clear to begin work again with the idea of having him ready to race in March.

We have also started training Grandeur at the farm - he is a half brother to Darci Brahma and Burgundy, a 3YO gelding by O'Reilly out of Grand Echezeaux.  This horse has grown into a particularly good type and just needed a bit of time for his joints to settle down.  He is working beautifully as is a 2YO Darci Brahma/Sans Souci gelding who has also started training here at the farm.

There are plenty of  things to be excited about - New Zealand won the Group 1 Victorian Derby in Melbourne with a Kiwi bred horse by Tavistock, then the All Blacks won the Rugby World Cup and yesterday, another new Zealand bred was to the fore with a son of Pentire winning the prestigious Group 1 Melbourne Cup.

Getting 'the treble' for such a small country makes me very proud to be a New Zealander!   I had tears in my eyes this morning watching the All Blacks arrive back from London. Seeing such a well disciplined side that knew how to celebrate but still keep everything in perspective with a ton of humility - what a group of men that this country can be enormously proud of.

This Friday I am travelling down to Christchurch and will be with Karyn at Riccarton on Saturday. Saturday night she has to fly back to Auckland to host the Weigh In programme on Sunday morning and on Sunday afternoon she returns to Christchurch as we are having an Owners' function for our South Island Owners on Sunday night.

Karyn is spending the week in Christchurch and attending the New Zealand Trotting Cup and the Group 2 Coupland's Mile Day at Riccarton and I will be back on the farm for the week but will be going south again for New Zealand Cup Day, which is also group 1 NZ 1000 Guineas' day.

We have some really nice chances at Riccarton across the whole carnival - this Saturday we have the favourite for the Group 1 NZ 2000 Guineas, another Pentire colt called Xtravagant and a Fastnet Rock colt called Bishop Rock will also contest this event that we have won four times. Both horses have been working really well and are thriving.

My main attention is turning to the Ready to Run Sale which will be a particularly exciting sale especially on the back of the Melbourne Cup and also the Caulfield Cup (with Mongolian Khan being a product of that sale three years ago). Last year at the Ready to Run Sale, shares in our horses sold within hours and there were quite a few people who were disappointed to miss out. I have seen horses that I will be buying at the Ready to Run Sale so if you would like to be part of the team please email Karyn and let her know.

I was incredibly sad to receive the news this morning that jockey Tim Bell had passed away in Singapore at the young age of 22. Just tragic for a guy with his whole life ahead of him. Karyn & I wish to extend our sympathies to all his family and friends. It was only the weekend before last that he won the big Grioup 3 race on Sebrose for us in Singapore giving him his first Group winner there.

Both of Te Akau's stables in Singapore and Matamata are absolutely flying at the moment with Mark Walker extending  his lead in the Premiership in Singapore to nine and Steve and Jamie being four in front in New Zealand. It is a huge team effort by everyone - and they all make me unbelievably proud.

Mark Walker arrives home for a three week break on December 15 after the last meeting for the season in Singapore and it will be great to be able to spend some time with him and Julia & their two children.

This year at the Karaka Sale, my partners and I are selling four yearlings with two by Rock 'N' Pop and two by Burgundy.  This week we have been busy making sure that they are walking nicely and we have been giving them their first shampoo. It reminds me how quickly the yearling sales are coming around, certainly an exciting time of the year.

Have a great week and best of luck to the Canterbury Jockey Club for their New Zealand Cup Carnival which kicks off on Saturday!