Te Akau Midweek Update
Date: 28 Sep 2022
David writes:
Gee it's a busy time of the year! Every day is different but nonetheless seriously busy. Our team is working so very hard in Matamata, in Christchurch, in Singapore and at Te Akau Stud. It's full team ahead with so much going on!
Last Thursday night Karyn and I went to the annual awards' function that the Matamata Racing Club stages each year to celebrate and recognise the major performers based out of the training centre. It was a really enjoyable evening.
Te Akau Racing won the following awards:-
Champion 2YO - Maven Belle
Champion 3YO - Imperatriz
Champion Apprentice - Joe Kamaruddin
Champion Trackwork Rider - Hunter Durrant
Champion Trainer - Jamie Richards
Champion Stayer - Probabeel
Champion Horse of the Year - Probabeel
When She's A Showoff (below) won on Sunday, it was Mark Walker's 34th win for the season - we are just seven weeks into the new season and already Te Akau has we won prize money of $703,000 for our owners, with a strike rate of 5.2.
Our Singapore stable is also leading the Premiership in Singapore and well done to all our team there. Donna Logan had another three winners last weekend taking our tally to 50 wins for the season (which ends in December).
Karyn and I had a wonderful night on Saturday at Eden Park celebrating the All Blacks win over the Wallabies. What a fantastic evening it was and it was so good to see the All Blacks dominate like they did (sorry to our very loyal Australian owners!!). It was a sell out crowd and why wouldn't it be? The All Blacks haven't lost at Eden Park since 1994.
One weekend highlight was seeing Embellish, who I selected as a yearling and we trained to win the Group 1 NZ 2000 Guineas, have his first runner to the races. She was a very good winner for her breeders and owners Brendan and Jo Lindsay of Cambridge Stud - what a great start for a stallion we rate highly - and he stands at only $4,000 +GST!
This week we have been docking lambs. One paddock yesterday and two today and then we will only have one mob of late lambs to complete next week. The grass is definitely starting to move but we have a lot of months left to eat it all.
Tomorrow I leave for five days in Singapore. I will be going to the races and have lots of owners and friends to catch up with. I am looking forward to spending time at our stable, my first trip since the borders re-opened, and inspecting all our horses there.
Speaking of which - Karyn has just called to say she and Mark identified a horse to race in Singapore which they have just bought. Donna said "I am so excited, I can't wait to have him here" - he is a Written Tycoon 3YO gelding who has won a trial and a jump out. He was a A$625,000 yearling (that's him below at the sale) and was only sold as his owners are stallion creators and he does not fit their business m model, having been gelded.
We will be emailing all our owners about him shortly - a 10% share is just $9,900 +GST - and he should head to Singapore in the next few weeks ready for the new season. The best part is that he is eligible for $75,000 maiden races so his new owners have plenty to look forward to.
We have plenty of tangerine runners for you to follow in coming days - a lovely 2YO at Otaki tomorrow, Riccarton and Hastings on Saturday and of course Singapore races this weekend too.
Best of luck to all our owners with starters and ...