Te Akau Monday Update

David writes:

What a beautiful spell of weather we are having to start the week in the Waikato - not too hot, just beautiful fine sunny days - perfect weather for all the stock and the horses on the farm with lovely quality grass - everything is thriving which means there is a very happy boss!

Yesterday afternoon and evening, Mark Walker and I, along with some very good friends from Cambridge watched the races from Ellerslie and gosh wasn't Angelica Hall impressive?

This is a Group 1 filly if ever I have seen one - the way she raced was a great credit to her trainer Jason Bridgman. I also thought it was a terrific ride form Matt Cameron - she was slightly slow away but Matt didn't panic and really taught her how to race.  She settled at the back of the field and came through the field without covering a lot of extra ground and would have really learned a great deal from the race.

Sunday was also the final day of racing for the 2013 season in Singapore.  Vitalico, a horse that Mark and I own ourselves, won at Kranji completing an unbelievable season for Mark. To train 73 winners in Singapore in a season, finish second on the Trainers' Premiership and earn $4.5 million in prize money for our owners is an achievement that everyone at Te Akau is proud of.

I had a very interesting experience at the Te Rapa races on Saturday when Garry Chittick brought two friends of his up to our box for a drink.  I asked one of these gentlemen what he did for a living and his modest reply was that he was a farmer.  Garry said "aren't you going to ask how big his farm is?" - Of course that was my next question - you wouldn't believe it, this chap owned 3.5 million acres in one farm.

I thought 4000 acres that we have here was an enormous block of land, that wouldn't even be his front paddock! He runs 70,000 cattle on this property and I can't wait to go and have a look at it.

If you think that is a misprint - 3.5 million acres - it is not, that is the size of this gent's farm in Queensland.

This morning Mark Walker left the farm and flew to Nelson to spend a couple of days with his brother and family and will be back on Wednesday night.  This morning we have our Ready to Run horses that we purchased, that came home from the sale to spell at Te Akau Stud, going back into work and we have eight horses coming home from the stable for a spell.

We also have a foster foal at Te Akau Stud - a classy little Mastercraftsman filly who we have called "Missy" - she lost her mother at birth and despite three foster mares being available all rejected her.  So we have her in a nice paddock in front of the house with her mate who is a gelding and she gets feed milk three times a day and is flourishing - and turning into quite a little character as she is very socialised.  Every morning Dayna takes her for a walk, teaching her to lead and we just love this wee lass.  She is a cracker.