Te Akau Midweek Update

David writes:

Well what a week it has been for Te Akau Racing!

Starting with Karaka Millions' night - it was such a fun night with a sell-out crowd of 12,000 defying some very ordinary weather to enjoy being back for a major racing event at Ellerslie.

It was also terrific that both the Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister (and Minister for Racing) showed their staunch support for the industry by being in attendance.

I am very impressed that - irrespective of anyone's political allegiances - both Christopher Luxon and Winston Peters understand the contribution that racing makes to our whole economy - from export, to tourism, to employment, and so much more.

Te Akau recorded another milestone on Saturday with our New Zealand trainers Mark Walker and Sam Bergerson hitting the century of wins in New Zealand alone - what a huge effort by our whole team.  The win came in the form of a stable quinella at Riccarton, with a mare I purchased from the Magic Millions' Sale, raced by Fortuna, heading home a Te Akau home bred! 

A special shout-out to our southern stable foreman Hunter Durrant and our Christchurch based team. It's amazing to think that we have now hit the 100 wins for the fifth year in a row (we have also done it previously as well) - these results come through the hard work and dedication of our incredible team, the loyalty of our owners, and the quality of horses we buy, and are entrusted to train.  Huge congratulations to everyone!

Speaking of milestones, we now sit at 101 wins for the New Zealand season after a special performance today in the $160,000 Group 2 Legacy Lodge Waikato Guineas by Ascend the Throne, a Savabeel gelding I purchased from Karaka.  He really looks an exciting aspirant for the Group 1 NZ Derby while What You Wish For, who I also bought from Karaka and who finished third, was probably the run of the race, a massive effort. 

Te Akau now leads the New Zealand Trainers' Premiership by over 40 wins - and importantly, we have one of the very best strike rates of the country's major stables - 5.47.  We are proud too, to have won $5.15 million in prize money for our owners in New Zealand alone this season (in six months) - with well over $11 million won for Te Akau owners in the past year across all our stables.

The weekend winning also continued in Singapore with a winning double for our stable - Our Secret Weapon, a horse I bought from the NZB Ready to Run Sale for $60,000, and Elliot Ness for the Fortuna team, both saluted the judge! Our Secret Weapon has now won six times, with six second and four third placings, earning over $170,000 in prizmoney for his owners.

Sunday saw the start of Book 1 at the Karaka Yearling Sale and it was great to see so many international buyers return to our shores eg from Australia, UK, Hong Kong etc.  It's a good thing for the industry and while they provided some spirited competition, we had well and truly done our homework and walked away with the yearlings we had identified on our hit list.

In total Te Akau bought 29 yearlings at Karaka, to complement our 13 from the Magic Millions' Gold Coast sale earlier this month.

I was very fortunate to have the input and support of Marcus Corban, Joe Walls, Mark Walker, Sam Bergerson and Reece Trumper.  Having Karyn my wife working hard for us all through the sale, selling shares and working with new and existing owners on their options, and Julia-Rose our daughter managing all of our media and social media content and programmes, our admin team led by Jenny our Business Manager, and to Lena our Stable Manager, and our wonderful assistant Shanti - it's a massive team effort by everyone - what a great team we have!  

Te Akau has the very best selection and choice of yearlings of any Australasian stable with our Karaka and Magic Millions' yearlings - there is a share for everyone, so check them out but be quick as the interest is so high, and shares are selling fast.

If you see a horse that doesn't seem to be selling so fast, don't be put off - remember horses like Imperatriz, Avantage, Quintessa, Cool Aza Beel and others were amongst the very last, if not the last, to sell in their year and look at what they have done.

If you want some ideas, guidance or suggestions - just email [email protected] or call me on 021 925151 and we will happily take you through the options and assist with your choices.  You can be assured of a warm welcome, world class communication and a thoroughly professional racing experience.

As all our Karaka yearlings are eligible for the Karaka 2YO Millions race in 12 months' time, they will be broken in here and educated through our excellent process - to give them the best opportunity to compete in the race if they have that precocity.  We do hope that a number will then race from our Cranbourne stable just like horses such as Imperatriz or Skew Wiff, who this new campaign will be targeting Group 1 races in Melbourne and Sydney.

The horses from Karaka have arrived at Te Akau Stud and are ready for their well-earned rest and relaxation with the lush, green pastures prepared especially for their arrival.  Our farm team simply loves this time of the year - it's such a wonderful time as these new babies join the small group of home-breds we have 'in residence'.

We had 40mls of rain at the farm last weekend, and for this time of the year, the grass is excellent quality.  We are still sending two units of steers away to the processors each week and they are averaging 320kgs.

This weekend, after the exciting thrill of winning and running third in the Group 2 Waikato Guineas, our attention turns to more black type racing at New Plymouth - unfortunately the weather forecast looks fairly bleak, so fingers crossed the forecasters have got it wrong!

Do check out our sparkling array of promising new yearlings that we have shares available in now!  They are selling at record speed, so if you take time to think about it, or snooze, then you could well miss out and lose!

Thank you to our brand new owners, and exciting loyal owner family for the support you have already shown us - we cannot wait to see this new talent hit the tracks, some as soon as September this year!

Good luck to owners with runners with weekend and ....

GO THE TANGERINE!!