Te Akau Monday Update
13 September, 2021
David writes:
What an exciting week is has been for Te Akau Racing, with winners across three countries!
On Wednesday Duby won her swansong - a race sponsored by Te Akau Racing - at Taupo before she heads to be mated in Australia. She is raced by the Smithies family of Monovale Farm, great supporters of our stable so we were delighted to see her farewell racing on a winning note.
Then Karyn and I went to Raglan for the weekend where we watched Entriviere compete in Sydney in the A$200,000 Group 2 Coolmore Sheraco Stakes - the Rosehill meeting staged at Kembla Grange. When she took the lead, the atmosphere in our house was euphoric!! We were cheering at the TV, urging her and James McDonald home for the win!
James was of course Te Akau's stable rider many years ago - he is a very good friend of ours and we have been so proud of his achievements since he re-located to Sydney. Seeing this talent back in the tangerine colours was brilliant and he rode the mare to perfection.
We could not be more proud of Entriviere - she becomes Jamie Richards' second Group winner in Australia in the past four weeks following on from Probabeel - and we have some very good chances to add to this with Probabeel, Kahma Lass, Amarelinha and Sword of State all to step out soon across the Tasman.
Later on Saturday we saw our Te Akau Singapore based trainer Mark Walker move further up the Trainers' Premiership with Entertainer. Entertainer was ridden by our stable apprentice K Hakim who is not only the leading apprentice in Singapore, but he also leads the actual overall Jockeys' Premiership. Entertainer is raced by a Fortuna Syndicate and added to Fortuna's winning record in Singapore this year.
It was a frustrating night of racing for Mark however as he also had four extremely close second placings, but that shows you how well our team is performing.
Late this afternoon we heard the news that Auckland remains in Level 4 for another week. As we all know, lockdown life is strict. Not being able to go out anywhere, or spend time with loved ones and friends is tough for sure. I really do feel for those people based is Auckland in this, their fifth lockdown. We are lucky to be living in the Waikato, where we do have more relaxed rules, but rules nonetheless. We just can't wait to see our family again soon.
On the farm today, the team was busy docking and is about halfway through our lambs. I have never seen so many sets of twins and our survival rates have been enormous this year.
Over the last month we have been busy buying store cattle. Our aim is to purchase 100 yearling steers each week and so far, we have bought just on 500. We have about 2,200 2YO steers that are in beautiful condition and we will start selling them in about five weeks' time.
As much as I adore farming, my attention is never far from the horses. I am now focusing on the Ready to Run sale. This is a sale that I have always enjoyed being involved in. Held at the Karaka sales' complex in November, Te Akau Racing has had a lot of success from this sale, with horses such as Brando, Gingernuts, Hall of Fame and Te Akau Shark just to name a few. Pure Imagination (below), our smart debut winner at Te Rapa just over a week ago, also was bought by me from this sale.
If you would like to join me on the 17-18 November 2021 at the Karaka sales' complex, you would be made to feel very welcome! We will certainly be buying some very promising two year olds.
The new season is now well under way and you can expect to see more of the tangerine colours on these upcoming race days. As I mentioned, we have Amarelinha, Probabeel, Kahma Lass and Sword of State racing in Sydney and Melbourne over the next two weeks, while on Saturday we have eight runners ready for Riccarton and further eight for Hawkes Bay - it is shaping up to be an exciting few weeks of excellent racing ahead!
Best of luck to all our owners who have runners this week and ...