Te Akau Monday Update

David writes:

I always look forward to the month of July because it is the only time for us to take a proper break. But I also look forward to this time of the year because so many of our promising horses are back in the stable.

For example on Saturday morning at 4.50am I got a text from Jamie Richards to say that Te Akau Shark had just completed his first piece of three-quarter pace and how good he looked. He is certainly a pretty exciting horse and we are looking forward to the new season with him - and all of the other horses we have in our stable. Like I have said before, every horse matters at Te Akau - headline maker or not!

Another reason Karyn and I enjoy this time of the year is because the pressure of buying and selling all of our yearlings is just about finished for the season. The only other big job we have now (well Karyn does) is registering and naming all of the yearlings and that is a massive task but will all be finished in the next week or so. So watch out for updates on your young horse!

This season, since November's Ready to Run Sale we have syndicated 60 horses. This is made up of 49 yearlings, nine horses from the Ready to Run Sale and two privately purchased.

Of the 49 yearlings, it is hard to believe that we only have shares remaining in two yearlings. You know I have said it before - so often our last horses to sell have been up there with the very best eg Avantage!

The two yearlings we have shares remaining in are both colts - they have been fully educated and both have shown a ton of promise to date. They are now back in the stable and are getting ready to trial in the early Spring. Both of these colts have made of big impression on our trackwork riders and both look real Karaka Million types!

LOT 355 our Iffraaj/Rosetti Bay colt

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This colt is by the same sire as Gingernuts and is out of a really top Pins' mare. I thought this colt was terrific buying at $165,000. Only 17.5% now remains.

The picture above was taken at the sale and even then you can see what an athlete he is. He has absolutely flourished in the five months since the sale and has muscled up beautifully - he's a very good looking, strong boy with a lot of class about him.

LOT 653 our More Than Ready/Costarosa colt -

I bought this colt from the Karaka draft of Cambridge Stud. He is a belter of a colt with a beautiful pedigree. More Than Ready is one of the great sires in Australia and has already sired TWO Golden Slipper winners.

Another thing I love about his pedigree is that he is out of an Encosta de Lago mare who is out of a Flying Spur mare, who is out of a Rory's Jester mare, who in turn is out of a Three Legs' mare.

What does this mean? SPEED, SPEED, SPEED!

There is only 30% available now in this smart colt who again I thought was terrific value for money - great buying at $180,000. I bought this colt to win the Karaka Million with a view to being able to race him in Sydney for their big two year old races. Again all our track work riders really rate this colt.

Remember two years ago the last horses to sell were Group 1 winners Avantage and Sword of Osman - and the year before the last to sell was Gingernuts who won three Group 1 races, and on both sides of the Tasman too.

My goal at Karaka this year was to have all of the yearlings sold by 7 July - so I have two weeks to sell the final shares in these last two colts - it would be amazing to have sold all our yearlings by the time Karyn and I head away for our break!

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