Te Akau Monday Update

David writes:

What an exciting last seven days it's been.

Firstly congratulations to our youngest daughter Julia-Rose and her fiancé Hamish - their baby girl was born last Monday.  Lucia-Rose is thriving and is now home ... Glam-ma Karyn is very happy and has spent the last few days in Auckland with the new family - and I paid a visit too!

What a beautiful, wee contented behaved girl she is.  I now have five grandchildren of which we are very proud.

Our Te Akau Racing team has also had a great week with winners in the past week at Avondale and Threntham in New Zealand and of course in Singapore - but the highlight had to be the tangerine quinella in Group 1 Sistema Stakes at Ellerslie on Saturday. We had three runners who finished first, second and fifth - with Sword of Osman the winner, over Karaka Million winner Avantage and The Reel Beel in fifth.  The Reel Beel, a Savabeel filly ran a really good race and will spell now and I can just see what a really good three year old she will develop into.

Avantage, who was runner up,  can have a few quiet days now before we make a decision as to her next steps.  I thought hers was the run of the race from the outside draw.  She ran her last 600 metres in 32.8, now that is incredible. Sword of Osman, the winner, is certainly an incredibly exciting horse - isn't a front-running horse thrilling to watch and they have the added advantage of not copping any interference.

Our stable has now won 14 black type races in New Zealand alone this season and is the leading stable for domestic Group and Listed wins.  We have also won over $3 million in prize money won for our owners - such a great effort from Steve and Jamie and all our fantastic staff at Matamata.

It's certainly the busy time of the year and it hasn't finished yet. Tomorrow Mongolianconqueror leaves for Sydney to join Age of Fire, with the Group 1 Rosehill Guineas in their sights followed by the Group 1  Australian  derby.

This coming weekend we have some nice chances entered on Oaks' Day at Trentham with Swing Note lining up in the Group 1 New Zealand Oaks, Heroic Valour will step out in the Group 3 NZ Lightning Stakes (incidentally sponsored by Te Akau) and Paulownia, a Fastnet Rock filly owned by Coolmore will take her place in the group 2 Wellington Guineas after an impressive debut win.

Tomorrow we also have two runners at Hawera and then on Wednesday it is our home track meeting at Matamata and you will see our horses at Tauranga too on Saturday.

This week we are sending a unit of bulls and a unit of ox each day to Greenlea.  We will be doing that for the next three weeks and we also have 300 fat lambs going on Thursday plus, providing it doesn't get too windy, we are also flying on 600 tons of superphosphate and 1200 tons of lime.

So it's all go!!

With now only 5% available in one horse and 10% in two horses, it's mission accomplished for another year!  I haven't had a drink for six weeks now and haven't found it too difficult except for Ellerslie on Saturday when I would have loved a drink after the Group one quinella.  However to compensate for that, I do feel terrific and I will break my drought in two weeks - can't wait, I can promise you!