Te Akau Monday Update

David writes:

Firstly and foremost - our thoughts go out to the family and friends of the two people reported as being killed by last night's earthquake in Canterbury.  It is just heartbreaking to think of how much pain and distress Canterbury is once again dealing with.  The good news is that our team members and horses in Christchurch are all safe and well.

We had another very successful Te Akau weekend of racing.  There was no racing on Sunday night in Singapore this past weekend but Friday night saw two nice wins for Mark Walker.  On Saturday our New Zealand team of Stephen and Jamie won the $100,000 Group 2 Tauranga Stakes at Tauranga with Abidewithme while Imperium at ran third in the $250,000 Group 3 New Zealand Cup at Riccarton.  Imperium is an example of a horse that has just needed time to grow into his big frame and I am pretty confident that he is going to win a major cup before too long. He still has plenty of improvement in him.

We had two special friends from Sydney staying in the weekend and two racing legends from Singapore, Gus and Karen Clutterbuck. Gus was a very successful rider himself and his father Lionel was also a successful jockey finishing second in one year in the New Zealand Jockey's Premiership while Karen's father Pat Corboy trained the great Grey Way to win 51 races.

Karen and Gus worked for us in New Zealand for a long time and have been in Singapore working with Mark Walker now coming up six years.  They are two of the best people (and talented horse people) you would ever meet in a life time.  They have been staying at the farm and today are going down to see their family in the South Island.

Obviously with the house full of guests, I stayed at Te Akau while Karyn went down to support our Riccarton team - and take the opportunity of having lunch with her mother on Sunday before flying from Christchurch to Auckland - just five hours before the earthquake struck.

To complete our "guest list" for the weekend it has also been great having Sam Boyd staying and this morning we had a most enjoyable drive around the farm showing Sam the various jobs that have been done in the last six months. Sam of course worked with me here at Te Akau Stud for 30 years before retiring about three years ago.

The big news this week is the Ready to Run sale.  It is a huge catalogue of 552 horses and I have seen some stunning individuals that will win some big races for certain.

Mark Walker has arrived in New Zealand for the sale and we will be spending the week in Auckland looking at the horses and looking to buy some very promising types.  If you would like to be involved in a horse from the Ready to Run Sale please feel free to ring me on 021 925 151 or email Karyn - [email protected] to be put on our priority list for "hot off the press" updates as we have shares available.

Have a great week.