Te Akau Monday Update

14 October, 2024

David writes:

What an incredible weekend Te Akau Racing celebrated - with seven wins in 48 hours across our New Zealand and Australian stables. Three wins in New Zealand and four in Australia - a tally that includes a Group and a Listed victory in Australia, and some impressive stakes' performances in New Zealand too.

Our New Zealand stable has an impressive 4.5% strike rate which means we essentially win a race for every four horses that compete - it's a fantastic strike rate for a major stable. We are proud that Mark Walker and Sam Bergerson, so well assisted by our team, currently lead the Trainers' Premiership by 14 wins.

We are delighted to again be the first New Zealand stable to reach the $1 million in stakes won for our owners - hitting the seven figures over the weekend.

We have almost hit the $1 million in stakes in Australia too - currently our prize money tally for just two and half months of the new season stands at A$897,805 - or about NZ$991,568.

In Australia our stable is also on fire, with seven winners from our last 12 runners. The stats are reported slightly differently - our winning strike rate is 34.6%, meaning almost 35% of our starters win, that's over a third - while 65.4% of our runners are placed second or third - almost two thirds.

Incredibly, the 'return on investment' on Te Akau's Australian runners to date this season (which is calculated on one major website for punters) shows Mark Walker leading the top 48 Victorian trainers with a return on each betting dollar of 187.5%.

Gee our strike rate in Melbourne is just incredible and I would like to thank all the owners and breeders in New Zealand and Australia who have supported us so much, by giving us so many beautiful yearlings, as well as tried horses, to train. It is certainly a very exciting time for Te Akau Racing.

It's been very interesting to learn that many people in Australia thought Te Akau was a 'closed shop' and that we didn't train for outside owners. Of course we do, and we are welcoming new horses every day at Cranbourne as the word gets out, people are taking notice of our Australian results and wanting to be part of the stable too.

The weekend of winning kicked off on Friday night when Our Paramour was sent out hot favourite on her home-track at Cranbourne. I purchased her for the Fortuna syndication company and she was ridden to precision by top Australian jockey Blake Shinn - she was the only ride he accepted that evening ahead of a major meeting at Caulfield the next day.

Saturday began with a hiss and a roar when Inspired By Art, a filly we train for Octagon Bloodstock, Janine Dunlop and Calder Bloodstock saluted at Te Rapa. This was quickly followed by Vivacious winning at Ashburton and then Fellini was super claiming the $50,000 Ashburton Cup.

Later on Saturday, how good was Bellatrix Star in Melbourne, winning her third Group/Listed race in a row since joining our Australian stable. I bought this filly from Karaka for $80,000 for Fortuna and she has really gone from strength to strength since arriving in Victoria.

In winning the A$300,000 Group 2 Schillaci Stakes at Caulfield, she raced against the older horses, and became the first 3YO filly to win the race in 21 years. Well done to Mark, our assistant trainer Ben Gleeson and our team, and especially Laura Winks, who rides the filly in track work.

Her win is also brilliant news for the New Zealand industry, as it franks New Zealand form - she was the winner of the Group 2 Eclipse Stakes at Ellerslie as a two year old and was fourth in the Karaka 2YO Million. This just shows that our two-year-old form in New Zealand is better than some say, as she wasn’t the country's best two-year-old last season.

Sunday was also a perfect result for our Victorian stable which sent two horses to race at Seymour and both came home winners. Stage 'N' Screen, an Ace High filly I purchased from the NZB Ready to Run Sale, sailed home for our former apprentice Michael Dee to win at her first start.

Later in the programme is was the stable's senior statesman, Midnight Blue, who blew his rivals away in the A$200,000 Listed Seymour Cup over 1600m with another former Te Akau apprentice in Dan Stackhouse aboard.

This 8YO gelding by So You Think was purchased by me from Inglis Digital for $92,000 as a proven horse - the previous Group 2 Perth Cup winner has been revitalised since joining our Cranbourne stable and again huge kudos to Mark and especially our assistant trainer Ben and our team for presenting 'Bluey' in such fine order.

Midnight Blue has won twice, and has once finished second, in his six starts for the stable, already earning almost A$220,000 - he's providing his owners with a lot of fun.

We received an email from one of his owners Bryan Martin who was a respected race caller in Australia and he was so delighted. Bryan was the race day commentator at Seymour for forty years and was absolutely thrilled to have a share in 'his own' Seymour Cup winner – Midnight Blue.

Interestingly enough, he said that he had been involved in five horses with Te Akau and they had all won, including Karaka 2YO Million and Group 1 winner On The Bubbles, Reignite, Stenmark and Charminton. Well done Bryan and great to have you in the team.

So yes, a weekend to be proud of with seven wins and also some very good stakes' placings too: Dream of the Moon and When Stars Align were second and third respectively in the Group 3 Barneswood Farm Stakes at Ashburton. Campionessa also raced well for fourth in the Group 1 Livamol Classic after an interrupted preparation due to various abandonments/postponements of trials and meetings.

Last Sunday Singapore racing came to a close and I had very mixed feelings about it all. We were incredibly excited to win a good race with Te Akau Ben who we race with our very good friend Ben Kwok.

Racing out of his class, Te Akau Ben acquitted himself with distinction to enable our colours to salute on the last day ever of racing in the nation. I thought the son of Tavistock was very impressive but I found the day really tragic - racing in Singapore has now been officially closed down.

For a government that runs a country so well, the way it has handled racing is just so disappointing and sad.

Two years ago, I went to Singapore and met the Singapore Turf Club's senior leadership to find out what was actually happening. I was assured that racing was in great shape and that the club was only going to go from strength to strength, that stakes would increase and the future was bright.

Two weeks later, big increases in stakes took place, however the exciting times were not going to last as within ten weeks the announcement came that racing was closing down. The government claimed it required the land for housing. When they closed racing down at the previous track Bukit Timah, it said the same thing, and that redevelopment is nowhere near completed.

Racing was so popular in Singapore - Te Akau established its Kranji stable in 2010 and we always had wonderful support from owners. With Mark Walker at the helm, we won four Trainers' Premierships in 11 years, winning most of the important races.

However the Singapore Turf Club and government also made some fundamental mistakes such as not allowing young people or children under 18 to attend the races - subsequently generations were lost and many people in their 20's and 30's today don't even know racing existed in their country.

When Mark came back to New Zealand to train our team after Jamie Richards was invited to train in Hong Kong, we employed Donna Logan to work for Te Akau to train our horses. Donna has done a great job for us and she is now coming back to train in New Zealand at Byerley Park. Best of luck Donna and thank you, it will be great to have you back in New Zealand.

Thank you too, to our loyal owners who stuck by Singapore racing - it has been heartbreaking to farewell our horses but we have worked hard to ensure they all have secure and safe futures - this was an absolute, non-negotiable priority for us.

In other news, last Tuesday I went to the trials at Matamata and we have some very promising young horses ready to race in coming weeks. Two-year-olds that we bought at Magic Millions January Sale, Karaka, Inglis Melbourne, Inglis Sydney and the June Magic Millions sale are all showing potential so there is lots of excitement ahead.

On Tuesday night, Karyn attended the Australia Horse of the Year Awards in Adelaide where Imperatriz was a finalist in both the Champion Sprinter of the Year category as well as being one of five finalists for the overall Horse of the Year title.

We were thrilled that "Berri" was crowned Australia's 2023/24 Champion Sprinter, an accolade to join her back to back New Zealand Champion Sprinter/Miler awards, and of course she is our reigning New Zealand Horse of the Year.

With the school holidays over the last two weeks, we have had five local teenagers working for us on the farm doing jobs like grubbing thistles and spraying weeds, and they did an outstanding job. They are a really good group of young people and they are a wonderful reminder that we have some really top young people in our country. You so often read negative stories in the media about boy racers and young ram-raiders and the like but this team is of such quality and has such a great work ethic, I feel certain each one of them will make a positive contribution to this country's future.

At Te Akau Stud, the grass is really starting to grow now and the stock are absolutely thriving. We are sending 120 dry ewes to the processors Wilson Hellaby this week and then next week we will start on our prime steers which we send to Greenlea.

This week I am organising my trip to Melbourne for the Derby/Cup Week, during which time I will have many meetings with new owners and breeders, and will also visit our Cranbourne stable. Then it's off to Christchurch for its Cup Week. Later in November I am going to Sydney to inspect yearlings in the Hunter Valley and then Newhaven Park Stud. Then we are off to Braidwood to attend the wedding of our vet Dr Douglas Black's lovely daughter Jennifer to Ben Pryde.

It's a busy week again this week for all our team - we are organising our Owners' Events, the details of which we will share soon with our owners. We are really looking forward to these dates, it's always such fun catching up.

Best of luck to all our owners with runners this week at Pukekohe, Ellerslie, Otaki and Victoria.