Te Akau Monday Update

David writes:

A huge thank you to all our owners - new and existing - who have invested with us in exciting young horses from the Ready to Run Sale.

I am staggered how quickly shares in these horses have been selling and I am really looking forward to meeting all of our new owners in the future too.

I had in the back of my mind that I would purchase perhaps three horses at the Ready to Run Sale - however there were so many quality horses there that I couldn't help myself!  When I see a horse that I believe can develop in to a stakes' horse, I just go and buy it and then Karyn and I back ourselves to sell them.  Bottom line is that we would never buy a horse that we would not be prepared to race ourselves.

There is now only one colt in whom we have shares available - and he truly is a stand-out - a potential stallion in the making if I ever saw one: he is Lot 137, a Savabeel colt out of the Pins mare Millililli - she is a half sister to Champion 2YO and Champion Miler and Stayer Onceuponatime.   While unraced herself, she has produced two winners from her three horses to the races thus far.  His grandmother was the Group 2 Sir Tristram Fillies' Classic winner.  It's a lovely family and he is a stand-out individual - take a look for yourself:

I took the cover off this colt yesterday and just went 'WOW'.  This colt will be ready to race within three months - trial early February then look to race at the end of February/early March.  This colt really took my eye as a yearling but due to a minor setback he didn't make the sale and as soon as I saw him in the Ready to Run catalogue, he was the first horse that I went to inspect.

I was thrilled that after buying him, Waikato Stud's Mark Chittick came to thank me for purchasing the colt and said he rated the colt so highly that he would like his four children to be involved with the horse.  When I saw him in the paddock this morning,  I could see why - he is one of the most beautiful colts you could ever see.  An absolute ripper of a colt!

My immediate aim for this colt is the Group 1 Sires' Produce as a two year old this season and then the Group 1 NZ 2000 Guineas this time next year.  Gee he is an impressive colt.  This colt could be the next Savabeel and we only have two shares now available so if you want to race a colt with a stallion pedigree - get in touch with us now!

You can pop through to our "Yearlings and Shares" page and you will be able to click on his video and see him in action - he will also be at our Owners' Event at Matamata this afternoon.

Speaking of which - we are all looking forward to this afternoon when we host our North Island Owners' at the Matamata racecourse.  Three years ago we paraded the two horses I had purchased from the Ready to Run Sale for our owners - and everyone was offered shares in them.  You wouldn't believe it but they both won Group 1 races - Gingernuts and Hall of Fame - four Group 1's between them!  The following year of course we paraded Te Akau Shark!

Quite a number of people are buying a share in a racehorse as a Christmas present and Karyn can organise this for you. We are now, due to overwhelming demand, also offering gift vouchers - so you can buy one which your friends or family can put towards a share or training fees etc.  With Karaka's National Yearling Sale around the corner this is a perfect gift - especially for people who are hard to buy for (Karyn tells me I fit that bill perfectly)!

The other piece of great news is the rain!   At Te Akau Stud we had just over 50mls over the weekend.  Magnificent rain for this time of the year and we will now have beautiful, good quality feed now until at least the middle of January!

Time to head off to Matamata - have a great week!