Te Akau Midweek Update

David writes:

Gee the weather has been very changeable in the last month. Yesterday was probably the coldest day I can ever remember at Te Akau Stud. I don’t think it got over 8 degrees all day and it was brittle!

This morning however it was just magnificent at the farm - we had a frost at Matamata as you can see from the main photo our co-trainer Mark Walker sent through - but only a heavy dew at Te Akau Stud.

The weekend started brilliantly with three Te Akau horses honoured at the South Island Racing Awards - Nucleozor, a homebred, was named Champion 2YO; Talisker, an Embellish gelding I purchased from Karaka, was awarded the Champion 3YO trophy, and Perfect Scenario won the Champion Miler award - how brilliant to see him then come out the very next day as one of our two Riccarton winners, alongside Age of Discovery! 

What a great day it was indeed for Te Akau Racing had on Saturday – winning two races in New Zealand as I mentioned. It was also great to see Dream of the Moon finished runner up in the Listed Canterbury Belle Stakes, beaten just .2L.  

Then of course there was a stakes' race victory at Flemington in Melbourne with Bellatrix Star.

The great thing about Bellatrix Star winning is that it really franks the two-year-old form in New Zealand from last season.  She was of course the winner of the first 2YO race of last season - just like To Bravery Born two weeks ago.  

She then went on to finished second to Champion 2YO of the Year Velocious in the Listed Counties Challenge Stakes before turning the tables on Velocious when winning the Group 2 Eclipse Stakes on New Year's Day.  A fourth placing in the Karaka 2YO Million was her final start for the season due to a slight injury - and returning from hr spell, she transferred straight to our Cranbourne stable.

So what a training feat - I thought her debut fifth in Australia was much better than it looked on paper, and patiently ridden by our former apprentice Michael Dee, she showed a brilliant turn of foot to burst out of the pack and win the A$175,000 Cap D'Antibes Stakes.  This will significantly add to her future value and she won in a way that I can see plenty more wins coming from her in the near future.

I bought Bellatrix Star at the Karaka Sale from the draft of Phoenix Park, and she is owned by John Galvin's Fortuna Syndicate - hearty congratulations to John and his team, a number of whom were on course to enjoy the celebrations!

Quintessa and Sans Doute were very disadvantaged by the rain (and hail) that saw track conditions deteriorate but they are talented mares both, so watch them carefully when they strike better conditions.  

Congratulations also to Te Akau Australia assistant trainer Ben Gleeson and our team in Melbourne, it has been a cracker start to the season. It was great that Mark Walker was on course in Melbourne to witness it all and it was the second weekend in a row that we have won a Group race in Melbourne. So, yes indeed, our Melbourne stable is really well and truly firing.

How good - speaking of our stable well and truly firing - was Cambridge today!  Four wins on the seven race programme - Karyn and I are thrilled for the owners of Stonybreck, Rule of Law, Cantatrice (quinella with Puzzle Master) and Legally Binding - I purchased all at Karaka except for Legally Binding, who came out of the Magic Millions' Sale at the Gold Coast.

What a thrill for our Matamata team and our owners, top effort!

We have a big day at the Rotorua trials tomorrow and will be sending two team members from the farm to help out the Matamata team. Yesterday, Sam and Reece came to the farm to inspect all the spellers and are currently preparing reports on them all for their owners. 

Obviously with runners trans-Tasman, I spend a lot of time watching Trackside and I have to say I am really impressed with the new format as well as the broadcast team.

Since Entain's involvement, the coverage has gone to another level. I love Weigh-In with Emily Bosson doing an unbelievable and very professional job, new addition Guy Heveldt, who is a world class broadcaster, making his mark and also Jayne Ivil, and we all know how knowledgeable and well respected she is too. The three of them are combining really well and is a on-air team that makes for a very interesting watch.

Another programme I am enjoying watching is The Guerin Report which is screened at 8pm on a Monday night.  I record it and watch it in the gym the next morning while I am on the treadmill.  I am sure this programme will prove a must-watch as Michael shines a light on some very interesting industry topics.

The Saturday afternoon coverage has just also gone to the next level too I believe, and the new approach to provide colour and interest will undoubtedly capture people's attention!  Not everyone will love everything (as Karyn can tell you after her 26 years on Trackside) but I think we are very lucky with the team we have. 

To all the team at Entain and Trackside management team that is headed by Chris Haigh – congratulations.

The busy racing week continues with runners trans-Tasman - you can keep up with these on our 'runners' section on our website.

In farm news, today we are have been docking more lambs. We have already completed docking 1,800 youngsters and are about halfway done.  

Yesterday we bought 35 steers at the sale for an average of $1,235 each. The two-year-old steers are really thriving and I can see they are really going to be heavy in the October - January period when we start selling them.

The grass is really pretty good for this time of the year and will really take off once we get some warmer days.

Best of luck to all our owners with runners this week and ... 

GO THE TANGERINE