Te Akau Monday Update

David writes:

What another excellent weekend it was for Champion Trainer Mark Walker in Singapore.

Firstly we saw Cousteau kick-start the winning weekend with an impressive performance.

Cousteau is a 5YO Exceed and Excel gelding that I purchased from the Magic Millions' Yearling Sale. He was good enough to finish second to Prom Queen in the Listed Champagne Stakes at Riccarton - in total he had six starts in New Zealand - for a win, two seconds, two thirds and a fifth placing (for stakes of $20,925).

After assessing him from our New Zealand stable, I advised the owners that Cousteau would best be placed to do his future racing from our Singapore stable.

The owners accepted my advice and since arriving at Kranji, Cousteau has raced 19 times - for three wins and seven minor placings and has earned $150,010 plus starters' incentives of about $15,000. We were delighted to see him win again for his Te Akau Racing syndicate.

On Sunday the "Walker-Winners" continued with a winning double - Sportscaster blew his opposition off the track for his Fortuna owners and then a couple of races later it was the turn of Sacred Don to salute the judge for Raffles' Racing which has a significant team now racing from our Singapore stable.

The win by Sacred Don for the Raffles' team was our 16th for them this season - well done Dato Yap Kim San and Bruce Sherwin - we greatly value your support, you run an excellent business.

By my calculations, Mark is now 18 ahead on the Trainers' Premiership - what an amazing achievement! Mark looks well on target to claim his third Champion Trainer's title when the season ends in December, his third in nine years - to add to his five recorded in New Zealand.

Well done to all our Te Akau team in Singapore.

In New Zealand on Saturday we had a number of placings and while no winners, the tide will shortly turn as the tracks improve.

We got a huge thrill from seeing our recently-purchased Irish stayer Caliburn (main picture & below) go such a good race at Flemington. It was his first start in the Southern Hemisphere and to come from last at the turn to finish within three quarters of a length of winner in fifth place was very encouraging indeed - he was certainly very strong through the line.

Caliburn's sectionals tell the story - he posted the fastest closing fractions of his race - his last 1000m in 56.88, the 800 in 44.87, 600 in 33.56,, 400 in 22.57 and the 200 in 11.51. He is obviously a top class stayer and while the Melbourne Cup may come up a little soon for him this year, look out next year!

Craig Thornton is looking after Caliburn in Melbourne - what an outstanding horseman Craig is and we are thrilled to have him in the Te Akau team!

I first met Craig when I had all my horses broken in by Denny Baker in the early '80's. Craig worked for Denny and he went on to become one of the very best jumps' riders in the world, winning major races in New Zealand, Japan and Australia.

We also have three horses currently stabled in Sydney - Te Akau Shark, Probabeel and now Avantage, who joined the team last Monday. They are being looked after by Ashley Handley - you will hear a lot more about this young woman in the future - she is doing an amazing job for us!

Meanwhile Paul Richards, based in Christchurch with the team working towards the New Zealand Cup Carnival, reports that all of our horses have settled in really well and we are all hoping for a good track at Riccarton on Saturday.

We are planning on having 12 starters on Saturday and Michael McNab is going down to ride most of them. I have never seen a jockey work so hard and I am predicting that Michael will have a big season ahead. He has some of the best hands in the business and as you witnessed at Hawke's Bay two weeks ago in the Group 1 with Melody Belle, and with three winners in total on that day, he is a class act.

Michael has now got his weight right down and is very, very fit. He can now ride 54kgs without too much effort - well done to him for his real determination and commitment!

Another very hard working and also very important member of our team is stable rider Opie Bosson - he too has focused strongly on his fitness and his dedication will also see him have a big season ahead for sure - on the back of his Champion Jockey of the Year award last weekend! Tangerine is certainly Opie's colour! Opie will be riding the team at Hawke's Bay this coming Saturday.

We have had a very busy time on the farm and now only have two more paddocks of lambs to dock and we are finished. We have had a great lambing season and yesterday I went in to every paddock on the farm and I was thrilled at how the lambs are doing, and the cattle are in very forward condition too.

I then went and inspected every horse that is spelling on the farm and am delighted with how they are doing.

This morning I have left for eight days in Japan. I am visiting stud farms and training centres including Shadai Stallion Station, the world famous home to some 30 stallions.

I am also looking forward to inspecting Northern Farm's world-class training centre. Northern Farm has about 720 employees looking after its approximately 2700 horses stabled there - it will certainly be an experience to have an in-depth visit to an operation of this scale.

Then we will be attending the big All Blacks' game against the Springboks on Saturday before arriving back in New Zealand a week tomorrow.

Gee, isn't Spark Sport a shame for rural New Zealand and pensioners alike.

Firstly, we had to buy new TV's that have the Spark Sport app built-in only to find our rural internet is going to be too patchy to stream the World Cup. It reminds of the time when Trackside was taken off free to air TV. As a previous administrator of racing, we know that putting barriers up like this makes it extremely difficult to ensure your sport maintains popularity and relevancy when less of the population can access it. We will make other arrangements for the pool games and are thankful the finals will be shown on free TV.

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