Te Akau Monday Update

David writes:

It was another great weekend of racing for Te Akau with In A Twinkling, a horse that I bought from the draft of Curraghmore Stud at Karaka, winning the $100,000 Group 3 Counties' Cup in the hands of Opie Bosson.

Over the years we have not had many runners in the Counties' Cup and I was really thrilled to see this horse win so impressively.  You will recall that he ran second, beaten half a head in the $1 million Group 1 NZ Derby after missing the jump by three lengths - so I was delighted to see him get back on track winning his last two races.  

Then on Sunday it was great to see Star of Bombay win her maiden race at Te Rapa by four lengths.  It is always hard to win a race in the Spring.  There are lot of good up-and-coming horses ready to strike so I thought it was a terrific run from a filly that I bought at last year's Ready to Run Sale for $50,000.  

Many of Star of Bombay's owners are first time owners so that gives Karyn and me an even bigger thrill - well done!

Karyn and I have been busy this past weekend selling shares in our Ready to Run horses and they are selling really well. We also have a very special "Black Friday" deal - so if you would like to be involved don't wait any longer to contact us because these shares are selling very quickly. Please feel free to give us a ring.  

Karyn has also been busy in her role as Chairman of the Waikato Racing Club preparing for the Annual General Meeting tonight at the Waikato Racing Club's home of Te Rapa. Gee we are lucky in New Zealand to have so many people that volunteer to support racing.  These board members do it because they love racing and they do not get compensated what so ever, not even expenses.  They just do it because they love racing. We are so lucky as an industry to have them.

We have another busy week on the farm coming up with friends coming to stay, plus more cattle going to the works.  The beef price took another massive leap this week and is now well over record levels - the highest we have ever experienced - so it is certainly a very good time to be a beef farmer. 

Next Monday we are having our Te Akau North Island Owners' Day in Matamata so it will be great to see so many people come to see their horses and enjoy meeting other owners and share some fellowship.

The horses from the Ready to Run sale have all settled in really well and are absolutely thriving here at the farm .  I have just been around to inspect them all and I just could not be happier with how they are doing.   

I am now busy preparing all the paddocks that we put the yearlings in from the Karaka Yearling Sale - this is the time of the year to do this to ensure they are in beautiful condition at the end of January for our new yearlings when they arrive to their new home. 

While new horses from the sale are now safely here at Te Akau Stud - there was another very special homecoming this past week too!! Our superstar mare Melody Belle, winner of 10 Group 1 races, arrived back for a well-deserved break. She is very happy to be home - and reacquainted with her best friend Te Akau Shark, sharing Australian stories for sure (main picture).

I hope you all have a great week and good luck to all our owners who have horses racing.

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