Te Akau Monday Update

David writes:

Gee wasn't it exciting to have Spring Racing with us once again!

I've always said that Hawke's Bay Racing CEO Butch Castles is one of the very best in the business and what a beautiful track his team prepared for Saturday's races.

Of course the weekend started on Friday night with Te Akau Singapore trainer Mark Walker preparing an impressive five length winner - Mark remains 13 wins ahead on the Trainers' Premiership.

On Saturday, we had an "early" Fathers' Day with a big lunch with friends and family at Raglan before we settled in to take in all the day's racing - and boy did we celebrate the wins by Melody Belle and Burgundy Belle.

What a thrill to see Melody Belle, a mare I bought for only $57,500, go back to back winning the Group 1 Tarzino Trophy - now with seven Group 1 titles to her credit!

It was very special to see Jamie and our team win this first Group 1 of the new season, after winning a whopping third of all New Zealand Group 1 races last season! It won't be the last big win this season that's for sure.

It was also brilliant to see Te Akau jockeys Troy Harris and Michael McNab win half the card at Hastings - with Troy winning two from only two rides so a 100% strike rate, while Michael won three races.

These two guys, together with our stable jockey Opie Bosson, are riding a huge amount of work for us and they are just so fit at present. It is wonderful to see their hard work reaping these rewards.

It was exciting too for us to see our Te Akau apprentice Chelsea Burdan ride her third winner in three days and it is very interesting to see that top trainers are engaging her for their horses too - well done Chelsea!

Tomorrow morning we will be galloping horses at four different locations:

Matamata
Riccarton (Christchurch)
Randwick (Sydney)
Flemington (Melbourne)

It is certainly a busy time of the year and we are privileged that our New Zealand trainer Jamie Richards has such a world-class team around him.

It is likewise a busy time of the year at Te Akau Stud. We have been flat-stick docking our lambs and today it was 19 degrees just before lunch so the grass is definitely starting to grow which is brilliant news. The horses and all the livestock also love this warm Spring sun on their backs.

Our foaling has begun and we are eagerly awaiting more news on impending arrivals!

Every September just when we start to think the weather is on the improve, it changes big time - I think this week is going to be an example of this - lots of rain and wind is on the radar! Good for the farm but frustrating for the race tracks.

Have a great week ahead and GO THE TANGERINE on Saturday in Sydney with Probabeel and Te Akau Shark!

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