Te Akau Monday Update

David writes:

After a quiet weekend catching up on many different jobs at Te Akau Stud, it is time to get back on the road inspecting the yearlings for the upcoming Karaka Sale - we are full bore from today onwards.  Today we start at 10.00am at Cambridge Stud where we are looking at all their fillies and their eight best colts before travelling on to Lyndhurst Farm and finishing the day at Kendayla Park.

On Tuesday we start at Milan Park and then we go to Ascot Farm followed by Pencarrow Stud and then to The Oaks Stud.  On Wednesday is back at the farm working - it is a busy week on the farm with a lot of cattle going to  the works and they all have to be drafted and weighed.

On Thursday we start first thing at Blandford Lodge at Matamata and move on to Mapperley Stud and end the day at Valachi Downs.  On Friday we start at Monovale Farm and then travel to Wentwood Grange and then to Windsor Park Stud.  It is a massive week and I am sure we will sleep well this Friday night!

While on the subject of yearlings, I was thrilled to read that three racing people, all breeders who love their racing, were honoured last week by the Queen in the New Year's Honours List.

Sir Peter Vela puts an enormous amount of effort in to our industry.  Some people are aware of his generosity but most people are not because he is one of these people who does things quietly and his many charitable works and donations fly under the radar - he is simply happy to help people along the way with no recognition.

Sir Peter has been one of the leading breeders in the Southern Hemisphere for many years and has had huge success both breeding and racing his horses.  Racing is his passion and Pencarrow Stud which is just out of Hamilton is one of the greatest set ups you will ever see, a wonderful nursery.  So congratulations to the whole Vela family on a richly deserved honour.

Karyn was also honoured for services to the community, to the arts and to racing and I was thrilled  to see somebody who puts so much into life receive something back in terms of recognition of her tireless and unpaid work for many organisations.

Next Monday I will be inspecting yearlings in the Auckland area, on Tuesday it is off to Matamata and on Thursday we head to the Central Districts for further inspections - Friday we are in the Masterton/Wairarapa areas before heading south to Wellington where we will be attending the Trentham races on January 18 -Tte Akau will have some nice runners lining up.

We had 8mls of rain on Friday night and further 6mls on Sunday - a bit of help for the farm - this settles the dust and helps the paddocks that have been chewed out to recover.  We have plenty of grass in the Waikato but further rain would certainly be very welcome!

On Sunday afternoon I spent the whole day going through the catalogue and again reviewing pedigrees and reassessing the yearlings that I have seen that I like and deleting those that I am not keen on.

This year the Karaka Sale will offer unique opportunities for investors.  With the very high NZ dollar compared to Australia for a change, I think there are going to be some outstanding opportunities for people to get involved in our great industry and with the number of people attending the races all around the country in the last 12 months, it is easy to see that stake money is going to increase in the next 18 months.

Don't forget we are only a three hour flight from Sydney where the stake money is very good.  Te Akau intends to purchase horses at this sale that will tackle those big races.  If you would like to join us please feel free to call me at any time on 07 825 4701.