Te Akau Monday Update

David writes:

Congratulations to the team at the Waikato Racing Club for organising such a great day of racing at Te Rapa on Saturday.

Skycity Hamilton Waikato Cup Day was one of the best that I can remember and I haven't missed on for years.

Recently my wife Karyn retired after seven years as Chairman of the Waikato Racing Club and the new Chairman is John Elstob. I would describe John as a person of the highest calibre, just the type of person who we want to see leading racing clubs. He is a very successful businessman and is very passionate about racing, with communication and people skills that are second to none.

I was so thrilled that his first big race day was such a huge success. I also wish to commend the Board of Directors of the Club - they are really proactive and were seen all over the course all day - meeting patrons at the entry gates is a really positive touch. The team is really hands-on so good on them.

The track was in beautiful condition, which is down to the skill and expertise of track manager Bart Cowan. Bart has made such a massive difference with the Te Rapa track and I consider it now to be one of the best in New Zealand.

Butch Castles, the Chief Executive of the Waikato Racing Club did a fantastic job in the way that he and his team handled such a big crowd - it was a sell-out event. It is a credit to his expertise in racing administration that the day was organised and executed so well with some 6,000 people flocking on course.

Our two daughters Lydia and Julia-Rose were there. Lydia helping out the Club for Cup Week and Day and Julia-Rose pitching in too!

There must have been around 100 hundred or so people waiting at one stage to enter. It was great to see so many young people at the races and all enjoying themselves - this is what our industry is all about.

It was also great to see Cameron George, the new Chairman of New Zealand Thoroughbred Racing (NZTR), together with another NZTR Board member Bruce Sharrock on course.

Cameron has one of the best minds that I know - he is one of the most intelligent, clear thinking men that I have ever met and it was really great to see both him and Bruce on course, supporting the Waikato Racing Club and getting out and about speaking to industry stakeholders.

If there is one thing in life that is a real pet dislike of mine, that is racing administrators who do not attend the races. It is very hard to understand how clubs work or the challenges they face, alongside the various industry participants, when people in leadership positions do not go and talk to the club board members and executive teams of these clubs and see for themselves what is happening on the coal-face.

When I represented the Waikato District on the Board of the New Zealand Racing Conference (the thoroughbred code's board prior to it being renamed NZTR), I made sure I went to the races every week. This allowed me to talk directly to the clubs to see what their desires and aspirations were, and to also see what their problems were. It was a great way to hear these views directly from our clubs, and by attending these race days, I was able to genuinely support them.

In my opinion, if you have no intention of attending race
days, it is best that you do not get involved in racing
administration.  

Saturday was also a great day for Te Akau Racing with three wins at Te Rapa - we also ran a whisker second in the two Group 3 races. This kicked off with our Snitzel colt Sword of State winning the $30,000 2YO race by 6.5 lengths on debut. Our stable jockey Opie Bosson was the pilot and his comment on dismounting was "too easy"! Opie was in the zone on Saturday, winning four races, three of them aboard Te Akau horses. It is certainly great to see him back riding and on fire!

I purchased Sword of State, who was bred by Sir Owen Glenn, for A$600,000 at the Magic Millions' Gold Coast Sale. He is part of our 2019 Colt Breeding Syndicate and he certainly has a stallion's pedigree. Let's hope he lives up to his breeding - he has definitely had a very encouraging start.

Sword of State is out of an extremely good mare called In the Vanguard, who performed at the highest 2YO level in Sydney. I love buying horses who are out of Encosta de Lago mares, he is fantastic broodmare sire, and Snitzel needs no introduction. Snitzel has sired over 100 individual stakes' winners and has been Champion Australian sire four times, leaving horses such as Trapeze Artist, Shamus Award, Redzel, Summer Passage, Russian Revolution and many others.

Te Akau Racing and Jamie Richards went on to take out the following race with Brando, a horse that I purchased at the Ready to Run Sale last year, also for a breeding partnership. I thought he really showed a touch of class on Saturday. He was one of two Savabeel colts that Duncan Fell had in his draft that year, with the other being Cool Aza Beel and I purchased them both from different sales. Brando will now head to Group racing, where I am very confident that he will be competitive.

The third leg of the Te Akau Te Rapa treble came with Mai Tai, a mare that we train for the Hawkins' family. It was fantastic to see them win the race with a mare they bred - and of course they also sponsored that race!

I am on the road again now, looking at yearlings this week. Today, we continue our Waikato district inspections before we finish the day at Matamata, where we will have our Christmas function for our stable team. I will then be at trackwork on Tuesday morning before we head off to inspect more yearling drafts.

On the sheep and cattle front, the farm is awash with grass. There is a lot of clover, and the stock are absolutely thriving. We are selling three truck and trailer loads of cattle this week and then that is all we are selling until the new year. The export price has dropped quite a bit, while the yearling
price is particularly good buying and a little bit cheaper than normal. The
margins that we need are still very good.

We have 25 acres of a crop called plantain which will be
ready to be grazed this week. Plantain is an excellent summer crop for
finishing lambs on, and I am predicting that we will have another 500 whether
lambs ready to go to the works early in the New Year.

It is incredible how close we are now to Christmas and I am just staggered how quickly the year has gone.

It has been one of the most interesting years of my life. It has been full of highs, and several frustrations, but we are certainly very lucky to live in New Zealand where life is almost back to normal as the pandemic continues around the world.

Have a great week everyone and best of luck to all our owners who have runners this week ... and ...

GO THE TANGERINE

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