Te Akau Monday Update

David writes:

It is great to be home after a busy four days in the Central Districts with my final yearling inspections.

It all started on Thursday morning when we were on the first flight out of Auckland heading for Palmerston North where had our first stop at Rex and William Fells' Goodwood Stud.

They have a very nice draft of yearlings this year and William has done a particularly good job of preparing them for the sale.  We then went to Bill Gleeson's Wellfield Lodge where he presented a quality draft of yearlings and then Bill hosted us for an enjoyable late lunch.  It was a relaxing and very pleasant occasion spending time with the Wellfield team and some really good friends including Christopher Grace of Hunterville, former NZTR Chairman Guy Sargent with whom I served on the NZTR Board, Simon Taylor (TAB bookie's father) and Joe Walls, Chairman of NZ Bloodstock.  Also joining us was Manawatu building contractor Paul Humphries who is on committee of the Manawatu Racing Club.

On Friday morning we were up bright and early and went to Braedon Whitelock's dairy farm which is about ten minutes out of Palmerston North.  He and his wife have four sons who are a true credit to them - all with university degrees and all play rugby for the Crusaders and two of whom are All Blacks.

There I saw one of the most magnificent dairy farms you would see in New Zealand - 2000 acres of well fenced, well fertilised prime land in top condition. They have 2000 dairy cows and they rear 700 calves in a huge operation that runs like clockwork.

Braedon has been interested in harness racing and has had considerable success breeding standardbreds and is coming to the Karaka sales this year for the first time to see how the other code performs!

Following this we headed to Jim Wallace's farm in Masterton and saw half a dozen yearlings before finishing the day at Sam and Catriona Williams' Little Avondale Stud.  They have a terrific draft and I am impressed with the progeny of their first season sire Per Incanto. He has really stamped his yearlings and must be a real chance to make it as a successful sire.  The last yearling I inspected was the Per Incanto out of Sound Lover and it was a great feeling finishing the task of looking at over 1000 yearlings.

Today is a day for work at the farm before I head off for Auckland and the Karaka Sales.

The Wellington Racing Club's meeting at Trentham on Saturday was a great day of racing and I was absolutely delighted to see Darci Brahma progeny's have a clean up with his fillies winning both of the Group 1 races on the day - the Telegraph (which of course Darci also won in a sizzling time) and the Levin Classic.

A lot of people were predicting that Darci would trifecta the Group 1 Telegraph with four runners entered - Nashville, Waterford, Cauthen and Irish Fling. However of his two favoured runners - Waterford (the pre post favourite) was scratched due to injury and Cauthen (the raceday favourite) was taken out on the day due to the upgrading of the track to a Fast1.

It was left to Irish Fling and Nashville to fly the flag and the mare Irish Fling went a super race to get up on the line.  It was a great result for her breeder Tony Ryder who has a full sister to Irish Fling of real quality in the Premier Sale!

I bought Darci actually ten years ago to this sale - he cost $1.1 million and when I bought him I did not have any shareholders for him - I backed my judgment and took the risk because I knew he was a simply outstanding colt with a blue blood pedigree to match. He was sold within 24 hours and of course the rest, as they say is history.  After winning $1.3 million in stakes and five Group 1 races, he was retired to stud valued at $10 million for his shareholders - and this season his service fee doubled to $40,000.

Back to Trentham, it was sad to see Cauthen a late scratching due to the firm track - the comment that I will make on the track is this - there is no doubt that one of the most difficult jobs anyone could have in racing is that of a track manager.  However, if they had had rain on the day, the track would have been like an ice skating rink - that is unacceptable.

The problem I feel, having looked closely at the track and walking on the course proper, was that I could see a month ago the course management allowed the grass to get too long. They then cut it and then grass hasn't recovered. You need at least 4.5-5 inches of grass, a good sole of grass, and that gives some cushion to the horses.  Don't forget that the Levin Classic is a lead up to the Derby - the Derby is the "Grand Finale" and we don't want horses jarring up and being sore for the Grand Finale!

I believe that the track manager should be instructed to prepare a track in the summer months that sees the day start at a 4 and dry out to between a 3 and a 4. I know that is easier said than done but they seem to be able to do it in Australia so we must be able to achieve this here.

You are better off to have a track that starts at a 4 and even if there is some rain on the day, racing will still be safe - there is nothing worse for stakeholders to take all their horses to a race meeting only to find that the jockeys have ruled the tracks unsafe and Trentham can and must improve in this area.

Sure there will be some days when rain arrives on the day however as I say, it is better the track being a 4 that could become say a 6 - that simply can't be helped.  On those occasions it is frustrating but is something we have to put up with.  It will ensure that at the very least we have track safety, sound horses and racing can proceed.

At Trentham on Saturday I got a huge thrill out of the Group 1 Telegraph because not only did I buy the winner's sire Darci Brahma as a yearling, I also bought the winner's dam Irish Belle! Both were trained by Mark Walker and both were good racehorses who have obviously passed their genes on.

The very next race we won with Redoute's Choice mare Abidewithme who we train for her breeders Sir Patrick and Justine, Lady Hogan.  This mare won a stakes' race at only her second start when she claimed the Listed Ray Coupland Stakes as a three year old.  She has been very patiently handled by Jason and he has been rewarded with his sixth group and Listed win for the season.  Abidewithme has now won six of her nine starts and is a beautiful mare who undoubtedly is of Group 1 class.

Our two group 1 candidates in the Levin Classic both acquitted themselves well - Aspen went a super race to finish third at only his fourth start - this Alamosa colt has a huge future we believe.  Our group 1 NZ 2000 Guineas runner up Chambord just had no luck - neither the draw nor the running in the home straight went his way - he was blocked for a run and did well to finish sixth (with plenty in hand) - we are really looking forward to the Derby with both!

It is raining at Te Akau today - just light drizzle and with more rain forecast which is great news because we are starting to get quite dry and this will enable the grass to take off so our new sales' yearlings come home to terrific green pastures after the rigours of the sales.

This year at Karaka I intend to buy the four best colts in the sale and put a syndicate together to do that.  Last year I did the same and three of the four have shown tremendous ability and look to have lots of potential - the fourth is a new acquisition from the Ready to Run sale where he topped the sale (the fourth original colt broke his shoulder in trackwork) - he too looks an exciting prospect.

If you would like to join this team you will need to be quick as the syndicate is filling rapidly.

With the health issues I had in 2013, there is one thing we haven't done as often as we would like in the past few months and that is to host our Owners' Events.  We were forced to cancel our usual November event due to my heart surgery but I can tell you this year that we intend to have numerous functions for our owners including events for you at the stable and at Te Akau Stud - so thank you for your patience and understanding.

Finally I will share with you an interesting call I received this morning from a very successful Auckland businessman.  He is in the market to buy two horses but he asked me to buy them for him - his view was "I have decided that I don't want to bid against you so I am better to have you do the buying for me, you really know what you are doing".

That comment makes complete sense!  I intend to buy a large number of yearlings across all price ranges - so be part of our team - join Karyn and me - and give me a call at the farm today on 07 825 4701 or from tomorrow in Auckland on 021 925 151.  You can always also email Karyn at [email protected].