Te Akau Monday Update

David writes:

What a great day Saturday was for Te Akau Racing – winning four races at four different venues, and seeing some serious performances from other stable runners that show another win is just around the corner!

The day got off to a great start with a two-year-old that David and Matthew Peacocke and I bred called Nucleozor. He is an Almanzor gelding out of the Burgundy mare, Nucleonic, herself a daughter of Singapore Champion mare Mexican Rose.  

Another juvenile we have sent south, Alabama Express gelding Discretion Rules, will also take huge benefit from the experience and he showed plenty of spirit to finish third, also at his debut.

Nucleozor had made the big road trip down to the Otago meeting for his first start and showed his maturity by powering home to win well.  This is a two-year-old that I thought was as impressive on debut as I have seen from a two year old this season! Being three and four wide the whole race, and finishing like he did, was a top effort and he looks to have a bright future.

It was a good day for the family because a couple of races later at Ellerslie we saw Qali Al Farrasha, Nucleozor's 3YO sister, run a very good second in the $150,000 Group 3 McKee Family Sunline Vase, only beaten a neck.  She too is showing a lot of promise having had just the six starts for a win, three seconds, a third and a fourth placing.

The second win of the day came via exciting 3YO filly Certainly - who we are proud to train for Waikato Stud. The Savabeel filly became our fourth $150,000 Group 3 Mufhasa Stakes' winner in five years following on from Star Of Bombay (2020), Need I Say More (2021) and On The Bubbles (2022), with Waikato Stud's I Wish I Win finishing second for a stable quinella two years ago when trained by Te Akau in New Zealand.  

I am very proud of the track record the stable has in this race which is historically won by very progressive horses. 

The winning wasn't about to stop there as Sans Doute showed her love for the straight course at Flemington in Melbourne, winning the first on the programme on Group 1 Australian Guineas' day, a A$150,000 event!  She is a Not A Single Doubt filly I bought in Sydney at the Easter Sales who has now won three in a row - he has in total won six of her 14 starts and earned A$285,457 to date for her owners.

Other performances that really stood out to me included: 

Ascend the Throne, who I thought ran a great race for third in the Group 1 NZ Derby in the Derby. He will have his next start in the ATC Derby in Sydney in four and half weeks’ time.

Sense of Timing, who rattled home at Otago for second in the $80,000 Listed NZB Airfreight Stakes, brought up her second valuable stakes' placing and a win at that level looks close.

I also thought Quintessa raced with really credit in the Group 1 Australian Guineas, gee she covered some ground. Being three and four wide all the way and to still finish fourth was a fantastic achievement. She's in for a rewarding campaign ahead and she's shown she is competitive at this level in Australia - there are big race wins in her just around the corner!

The day was then capped off with another win for our Singapore stable - four wins, at four different venues, in three countries!

At this time of the year, as a family, we tend to head in different geographic directions! There is a lot of top line racing taking place and while I represented the team at Ellerslie, Karyn represented the team in Melbourne and it was great that she was there with our owners who attended the races.

Karyn will stay in Melbourne for a few more days with Imperatriz running in the Group 1 Newmarket Handicap at Flemington on Saturday. While she could have raced there or in Sydney, neither race is ideal for her, but she needed another race before she defends her Group 1 William Reid crown later this month.  

The handicapper has allocated the top weight of 58kgs to her so it's a really tough ask for our star mare.  If she could pull off the win against very well weighted opposition then she would be the first to do so under that impost since Black Caviar. 

Karyn has also taken the time to attend the Inglis Melbourne Sale this week together with Mark Walker and Marcus Corban.  One Sunday we purchased a lovely Written Tycoon filly for A$120,000 for new Australian owners to our Cranbourne stable.  We then purchased Lot 71, another Written Tycoon filly for A$80,000 which was excellent buying. She too has been snapped up by new Australian owners.  

Our third purchase on Sunday was a strapping Royal Meeting colt out of Alana's Party - he is a half brother to our exciting 2YO filly Bellatrix Star, and it's the family of Group 1 winners The Party Stand and Callsign Mav.   He cost A$280,000 and already 55% has been sold, so with only 45% available, you better move quick - he will also join our Australian stable. That's him in the main picture - big, strong, physical colt, you can just see how muscular and well developed he already is.

On Monday another colt was added to our impressive line up of yearlings, and a steal at A$75,000 was Lot 367, our new Cool Aza Beel colt looks a real get up and run type, a really early 2YO like his sire.  He is out of a Snitzel mare called Love and has 'fast' stamped all over him.  I saw him when I was at the famous Newhaven Park Stud in December and he is an absolute cracker.

What a great birthday present that would be for someone to give to their partner: a Cool Aza Beel colt out of Love … that would be a great idea!

All of these four yearlings will remain in Melbourne and be rtained out of our Cranbourne stable.

We have had 130mls of rain already since Saturday night at Te Akau Stud and already you can see the clover and the green grass coming through and within five or six days the farm will look just amazing. We were lucky that it was quite well chewed out and a lot of the rye grass has been eaten so we will green up a bit quicker than most farms.

We sent a unit of steers to the works yesterday and have another unit going on Thursday and then I plan to wait and not send any more until May. We will probably send another ten units in May and that will be it until early October.

The rain has really put a smile on the team’s face and you can just see the grass that is going to grow because the soil temperature is so warm.

The sheep are all in great order and we still have about 700 wether lambs to kill which, with this good grass that we are going to get, we will really be able to put some weight on them in that time.

The ram is now out with the mixed age ewes and has been out for three weeks with the five-year-old ewes. That means we will start lambing with the five year old ewes in the middle of July and the mixed age ewes we will start lambing on the 1st of August.  It's incredible has fast this comes around.

Talking of fast, everyday we are selling shares to new and existing owners, they are still being snapped up really quickly - no stable would have shares available like Te Akau - we are chuffed with the  number of quality yearlings we have bought so make sure you check them out, there really is a share for everyone.  

You can race with Te Akau in New Zealand, in Australia or both!!

Best of luck to all our owners with runners this week and ...

GO THE TANGERINE!!