Te Akau Midweek Update

David writes:

At the kind invitation of Dennis Ryan, President of the Matamata Racing Club, Karyn and I attended the Club's annual awards' evening at the racecourse on Monday night.  All of the trainers and their senior staff were invited along with Club sponsors, life members and jockeys.

I first had a horse in work at Matamata in 1976 when I had a share in a leased filly with the late Bill Ford.  I remember going to the track to watch her work one morning and Bill had a very young Paul O'Sullivan riding her in work for him.

I loved track work - seeing all the well-known jockeys and trainers and especially the top horses in the flesh. As I walked around the stalls in 1976, I could never have dreamt that forty years later I would be back at the same racecourse, with our team winning as many awards as we did - it was just remarkable!

On Monday night we won trophies for Champion Matamata:

Two Year Old - Heroic Valour
Three Year Old - Xtravagant
Sprinter/Miler - Xtravagant
Jumper - Brer
Trainer - Stephen and Jamie
Jumps' Jockey - Dan Miller
Jockey - Cameron Lammas (who rides trackwork for us every day)
Horse of the Year - Xtravagant
Owner of the Year - Te Akau 2014 Breeding Syndicate

It was a fun night and I was especially proud to have Shane Wealleans (who has been on the Club committee and is a major sponsor of Matamata and other Clubs) there who has a share in both Heroic Valour and Xtravagant, together with his father Gavin.

We were also thrilled to have most of our senior team there plus our stable jockey Matt Cameron who came down from Auckland to support us.

One special moment was when a true legend of the turf, Champion trainer Dave O'Sullivan, presented Jamie with a trophy for Trainer of the Year.  With Steve in Melbourne with Xtravagant and Shillelagh for this week, it was lovely that his wife Lynley (who is also a very important part of our team) went up on the stage with Jamie to accept the award.

It has certainly been a great 12 months for Te Akau Racing but now the time for celebrations has well and truly finished as we are full-on with the new season with our first group heading to the Taupo races on Friday.

I was at track work at Matamata at 4.30am on Tuesday morning and I could see that the horses have started to lose their winter coats and most of our horses are really thriving.  For example our top 2YO of last season Heroic Valour looks amazing and he worked really well according to Matt Cameron.  Although he worked the reverse way round and finished his work at the end of the back straight, Matt was very taken with his work.

Heroic Valour is just a sample of the quality of horse we have to race this new season - we have terrific depth to the team this year with plenty of four and five year olds to race together with some very talented three year olds - and although we haven't done a lot with our two year olds, there is a belief amongst our riders that we have some beauties in those ranks again this year.

Whilst in Matamata I also went with Jamie and Brad Taylor, our Racing Manager, to inspect a colt that I bought privately a couple of weeks ago.  He is a Mastercraftsman colt out of Bak da Princess and the shares in him sold inside a week and I am really sorry that so many people missed out on getting a slice of him. He was hopelessly oversubscribed but don't panic!!!  The Ready to Run Sale is just around the corner and we will be buying some quality horses there.

Last year I bought two colts from this sale.  They are called Hall of Fame and Gingernuts and they had four starts in total as two year olds last season - for two wins and two second placings and both look very promising.

Then after trackwork it was in to town to have breakfast with Garry Chittick of Waikato Stud before meetings with our team and then I went to Hamilton to meet up with Karyn for a special lunch.  Karyn's Mum Sylvia is staying with us for 10 days and it was her birthday so we had a happy lunch joined by our youngest daughter Julia-Rose.

The news from Stephen Autridge and Kerry Jones in Melbourne is very encouraging and I don't think that Steve could be more happy with the progress of Xtravagant and Shillelagh.

Next week we will start sending our horses south to prepare for the NZ Cup Carnival.  Te Akau has a terrific record of success there and we are delighted that Kris and Nicole Shailer are taking our horses down this year.  We will have a really strong team for the black type races starting with the Listed Canterbury Belle Stakes in September for the three year old fillies.

We will also be sending a couple of nice two year olds down for the juvenile races that lead in to the Listed Welcome Stakes - we have won both of these stakes' races at least five times.

After two days in Matamata it is time to get stuck back in to the farm - we will inspect all of the horses spelling today and will be finalising our broodmare matings.  After plenty of rain in July, the farm is quickly drying out with the frosty weather we have.

Good luck to everybody who has a share in a Te Akau horse this season - and go the All Blacks on Saturday!

Main picture - Lance O'Sullivan first rode for me as an apprentice and came up to Te Akau Stud in about 1985 and has been a good friend ever since.  Lance is, in my opinion, New Zealand's greatest ever jockey and he rode many winners in the Te Akau tangerine.  In fact his last ever Group 1 winner came aboard Te Akau's three time Group 1 winner and Champion 2YO of his year, Maroofity.