Te Akau Midweek Update

David writes:

Wow - the countdown is over - Spring is finally here!

It is always such an exciting time of the year. The days are becoming longer, the blossom trees around the farm are beginning to bloom and it won't be long before the grass really begins to take off.

We have finished docking our 5YO ewes and they all went to a terminal sire. That means their lambs will be sold rather than kept for future breeding. We are thrilled that their lambing percentage came out at 156% - so for every ewe, we had 1.56 lambs.

With the mild weather that we have been having, the lambs are absolutely thriving, and we could not be any happier with their condition.

It was another winning weekend for Te Akau Singapore trainer Mark Walker and he still currently leads the Trainers' Premiership with eight months of racing concluded. Yesterday was a milestone day, as it marked 10 years since we established our Te Akau Racing Singapore operation at Kranji.

Mark and his partner Mirka took our assistant trainer Gus Clutterbuck and his wife Karen out for a special celebratory lunch as Gus and Karen have played a pivotal part in our Singapore stable's success. What a decade it has been with three Trainers' Premierships too!

There would be very few, and certainly no New Zealand based stables, that would have won Premierships in two countries in the same season. I could not be more proud of Mark and Jamie and our teams in both countries.

Speaking of innovation and success - I would like to congratulate Cambridge Stud for its online Virtual Stallion Parade that it staged last Sunday. It thought this was very professionally done and totally hit the mark given the COVID restrictions we are all operating under.

Gee - Embellish has grown into such a magnificent stallion! Last week, I said that he was the only son of Savabeel standing at stud, but what I meant to say is that he is the only Group 1 winning son of Savabeel at stud. We are waiting in anticipation for his first foals from Te Akau Stud mares to be born. Like I said, it is such an exciting time of the year!

In other good news the Auckland Racing Club has announced that it is looking at having an annual race in January that will be named after our legendary, triple Group 1 winner Gingernuts. What an honour!

"Jerry", as Gingernuts in known, is a horse that I purchased for $42,500 at the Ready to Run Sale. He went on to win the Group 2 Avondale Guineas in sensational style after missing the jump by five to six lengths. Two weeks later, our ‘Jerry' was thus sent out favourite for the Group 1 NZ which he won in fine fashion - and at his next start he won the Group 1 Rosehill Guineas in Sydney very easily.

In his next season he won the Group 1 Windsor Park Plate and then was narrowly defeated in the Group 1 Livamol Classic - before heading to Australia where he suffered his injury just before the start in the Group 1 Emirates Stakes at Flemington. He is now retired from racing and is living his best life as our lead pony for the breaking season here at the stud.

Unfortunately, we had to scratch most of our horses from Avondale today because of the heavy track - however Vamos Bebe stepped out and won in a highly convincing fashion in the hands of Danielle Johnson. This beautifully bred filly is owned by Brent and Cherry Taylor of Trelawney Stud and we are thrilled for them!

When you look at the heavy tracks we have currently, it just seems ridiculous to me that we are racing on these tracks and not using Ruakaka at this time of the year. The track at Ruakaka looks brilliant from the trials yesterday and I would like to see racing held there every fortnight through August, September and October.

It is impossible to get the good horses ready for Hawkes Bay on Heavy10 and 11 tracks.

We have a big team to trial at Te Teko on Thursday. A big thank you to the club there for putting on trials. Its track is always in a little bit better condition than most of the other clubs in the Waikato at this time of the year.

While it won't be so important next season with the all-weather track being built in Cambridge, it is nevertheless very important this year.  

It is disappointing for everybody that we can't all go to Te Rapa on Saturday but we will most definitely be watching the races from our living room!

We have a lovely team of horses ready to start racing soon so watch out when the tracks improve! Our stable jockey, Opie Bosson rang me on his way from trackwork yesterday morning to tell me just how well the horses are coming up.

Opie is not far away from getting his weight right now and
yesterday in the gym I thought he was starting to get tucked up in the face,
which is a sure sign that his weight is just about right.

Opie is riding Prise De Fer on Saturday which means Danielle Johnson will be riding Avantage - Danielle and this mare have a great record together with three Group races to their credit. Our other runner in that race is Scott Base who also needs very little introduction with his race successes and although an older horse, he is enjoying great form.

We are really looking forward to the Hawkes Bay Carnival - I am told that the track there is in fantastic condition. The season has only just begun and we already have some many events to look forward to.

Karyn spent the day today at Te Akau Primary School judging its speech contests - about 30 speeches in total. She has just arrived home and told me it was such an wonderful day - the pupils had worked so hard and done so much research and put so much time and effort into their preparation - and presentations.

Karyn won the World Public Speaking Contest in 1989 and over the years has done a lot of debate and speech adjudication both in New Zealand and worldwide. She absolutely loves working with and giving back to young people.

Have a great week, and all the very best of luck to our owners who have runners over the next few days.

GO THE TANGERINE!!!

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