Te Akau Midweek Update

David writes:

Sometimes, I have to pinch myself about the incredible run of success Te Akau Racing is having.

Mark Walker is leading the Singapore Trainers' Premiership while Jamie Richards is second on the New Zealand Premiership, but we are leading with the stake money won. Jamie also has the best strike rate of the top 20 trainers.

Te Akau Racing has won a race every 4.6 runners this season, and what is even more impressive is that every second runner has paid a dividend.

Of the 402 starters, 201 have finished first, second or third. Now that tells me what incredible staff we have - from apprentices all the way through to our senior team.

Last year, I got a big thrill when Chris Rutten chose Te Akau to train horses for him as he is a great horseman - one of the best I have ever met, and he must have identified that we were doing a good job. I thought Yourdeel's Group 1 win last Saturday in the Sire's Produce was just amazing. After our stable jockey, Opie Bosson and Yourdeel straightened up, I honestly didn't think they had a show. 

This is the third year in a row that Jamie has won this race, and the fifth Te Akau victory in this event. We won this race in 2003 with Maroofity, 2006 with Kindacross, 2017 Melody Belle, 2018 with Avantage and now 2019 with Yourdeel. It was also Jamie's 20th Group One win, and he is only 29 years old. This recent success has also taken the stake money won this season in New Zealand over $3.6 million.

We have another big weekend coming up, with Our Abbadeen running in the Group One NZ Thoroughbred Breeders for fillies and mares at Te Aroha, Probabeel running at Royal Randwick in the Group 1 Sires' Produce and In A Twinkling running in the Group 1 AJC Derby.

It's really lucky that we have such a great team looking after the horses - and I never like to single any individual out so this person is just one example of our dedicated crew - think for a minute what a busy week our Racing Manager, Libby Richards, is having. 

Monday night, she organised our stable staff function at Workmans in Matamata, when Karyn and I took all our hard-working team out for dinner. 

After helping with the trackwork from 3.45am on Tuesday, Libby then travelled to help at the Avondale trials where we had 18 runners. Tomorrow she is in Wanganui, Friday at Awapuni, Saturday at Te Aroha, and Sunday at Counties. 

The reason our staff do this is because they love the horses, and they love winning races for our unbelievable owners.

The farm at Te Akau Stud is slowly starting to green up. On Monday we had 28mls of rain which was a massive help to wash in the fertiliser we spread last Friday.

I know I keep mentioning that this is a fantastic time of the year, breaking our the young horses in. But with these horses under saddle, you get to see them in a different way. 

One colt that has really impressed me is our More Than Ready colt out of Costarosa, who I purchased from Cambridge Stud. This colt reminds me of everything I look for at the sales.

Just take a look at him - he is even more impressive in the flesh. He is a belter of a colt and the guys that ride him just rave about him. 

Have a look at him on our website:

https://teakauracing.com/product/lot653/

He is a ripper of a colt, and a real candidate for the Karaka Million. In fact he has that race written ALL over him. Karyn has herself purchased a share in him and she would love to race him with you! We do have several shares in him left. A 10% share is only approximately $20,000 plus GST, while a 5% share is $10,000 plus GST.

This colt has a beautiful pedigree. By a champion sire, More Than Ready has left the winners of 190 stakes' winners and is already a successful sire of sires. He has left stakes' winners in America as well and has sired four Golden Slipper winners.

But what I loved the most about his pedigree is that he is out of an Encosta de Lago mare, who is out of a Flying Spur mare who is out of a Rory's Jester mare - pure speed going back to four generations.

This colt is a ready-made two year old to my eye. Give me a call if you would like to discuss purchasing shares  - 021 925 151.

Just as we were going to publish this latest update, I received some tragic news - one of the racing industry's most important publications, The Informant, has closed, effective immediately.

How truly sad is that? Everybody in Wellington should hang their heads in shame! I am incredibly disappointed that this top weekly, with it's really current and updated website - a publication that was truly independent - is having to close with absolutely no support from New Zealand Thoroughbred Racing or the New Zealand Racing Board.    

To Matthew Francis, Dennis Ryan and the whole team involved - The Informant's closure leaves a massive gap in in-depth, insightful and dynamic industry reporting.

This Friday, Karyn and I will be travelling to Sydney to attend the races, as well as the sales. Te Akau's Probabeel will line up in the Group 1 Sires' Produce (she has drawn out at 14) and In A Twinkling, our Group 1 NZ Derby runner-up, takes his place in the Group 1 AJC Derby - he has drawn out wide too - jumping from barrier 15! Our stable rider Opie Bosson is aboard both.

We would like to wish all our owners who have horses racing this weekend the best of luck, and GO THE TANGERINE in the Group Ones.

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