Te Akau Midweek Update
16 January, 2019
David writes:
This evening, my Racing Manager Libby Richards and I will have a drink with Karyn to celebrate looking at almost every yearling in Book 1, a total of 698.
It's been a huge task going around all the farms looking at the yearlings but one that is also very rewarding. It is also the most important job that I do for the whole year as it's so important to get it 100% correct.
Just imagine if when I was at Waikato Stud last year I wasn't concentrating and missed Probabeel. Therefore, these inspections are vitally important and I am so fortunate that these are done in conjunction with the Chairman of New Zealand Bloodstock (NZB) Joe Walls. Joe has been looking at horses every day for a lifetime and has an unbelievable ability to sum a horse up incredibly accurately in about 15 seconds. At the end of each day we sit down and compare notes to double check we have it 100% accurate. The 'team leader' is NZB Bloodstock Sales' Manager, Danny Rolston. Danny would have to be the hardest working bloodstock agent I've ever met, very accurate and extremely capable. The New Zealand industry is very fortunate to have a man of his ability.
This week we started at Cambridge Stud on Monday, we completed Windsor Park Stud yesterday and then went and saw a nice draft of yearlings at Monovale Farm. Today we are heading to Curraghmore and Brighthill Farm. All we have left to complete is a handful of yearlings from the South Island which we will inspect at Karaka next Tuesday.
One thing that really fascinates me with yearling inspections is seeing the first season sires and making up my mind which ones I will buy, and which ones I will wait to see how they perform. One first season sire I am convinced is an exciting sire in the making is Mongolian Khan. He has left some beautiful yearlings that I can see winning autumn two-year-old races and being ideal candidates for the Guineas at Riccarton as three-year-old's. But they also have plenty of scope and will grow and develop into top stayers. Congratulations to Rodney Schick and all the team at Windsor Park, they do indeed have a very exciting stallion on their hands.
After today, we have the weekend to freshen up and early next week we will go to Auckland and start looking at our short list again, so that we can reduce the numbers for our final list. Dr Douglas Black, our veterinary specialist, will then begin vetting our short list. I am also very fortunate to have our New Zealand trainer Jamie Richards helping me next week. Jamie has a great eye for a yearling and we work incredibly well together at sale time, he is a huge asset to the Te Akau team. Speaking of assets, our Singapore trainer Mark Walker will also arrive late next week and he too will inspect the yearlings (and others) we have earmarked - so you can see that even though my name goes in the book as the final purchaser, it is a real team effort.
We have another busy weekend of racing coming up at Trentham and Te Rapa. We are all really thrilled with how Melody Belle has been working leading into the Group 1 Telegraph. Te Akau has won two previous Telegraphs with King's Chapel and Darci Brahma.
Yesterday, we also firmed up our riders for our Karaka Million runners. We have engaged five top jockeys, all who have previously won major races in the tangerine.
- Aotea Lad - James McDonald
- Probabeel - Opie Bosson
- Yourdeel - Matthew Cameron
- Louis Luck - Shafiq Rusof
- Challa - Jonathan Riddell
Meanwhile, in news from the farm, on Monday we had some rain which has freshened up all the paddocks beautifully. We are sending a truck and trailer load of cattle to the works most days at present. Today our vet Douglas Black is branding all the foals at Te Akau Stud. Its also a pretty exciting day for us because we take over an additional piece of land that we have purchased, 47 acres which joins the back of our two farms together. This means we can extend our new water system and roads which means we can drive around the whole farm.
Best of luck to all our owners over the weekend and ...