Te Akau Monday Update

David writes:

Well what an exciting weekend it has been for the Te Akau team with winners in New Zealand and Singapore plus a New Zealand Bloodstock Filly of the Year!

Mark Walker trained winners at Kranji on both Friday and Sunday.  What an unbelievable job he has done with Vitalico who won on Sunday. This horse is an 8YO who had soundness problems when Mark took him on two years ago and he continues to race well despite being a "veteran" - you wouldn't think so looking at last night's effort!  Full of courage and it showed just how well Mark had the horse.

We also had a good win with Sir Darci at Te Rapa which kept Jason four clear on the Trainers' Premiership.  I bought this son of Darci Brahma at the Karaka Premier Sale from the draft of The Oaks Stud for $140,000.  It never ceases to amaze me that barely a race meeting goes by without a Darci winning.  His progeny wins from 1000m to a mile and a half, they win maiden races and of course last time I was at Trentham on Telegraph day, his daughters won both of the Group 1 races staged.  He is a sire that just performs and as soon as he has a good horse in Australia, you will find his progeny's value sky rocket - at the moment they are very good buying.

By far the biggest thrill of the weekend was seeing Costa Viva win the New Zealand Bloodstock Filly of the Year series.  Jason, Mark and I bought this filly at the 2012 Gold Coast sale in June for $100,000 and she is now an extremely valuable filly.

Well done to David and Nicky Hurst, Dianne Ford and Ray and Jan Batten.  David and Nicky are long time supporters of Te Akau and over recent years I have bought and we have trained a Champion 2YO, a Champion 3YO, a Champion Sprinter/Miler, a Champion Horse of the Year and now a NZB Filly of the Year for them!

Isn't Encosta de Lago a fantastic sire? he just leaves winner after winner after winner and hasn't Te Akau had some success with him?

Princess Coup immediately comes to mind - I bought her for $240,000, she earned over $4 million in stakes (she remains New Zealand's highest ever domestic stakes' earner) and was sold as a broodmare for $3 million - a sales' record at the time.  She remains one of Encosta de Lago's best ever fillies.

We have a promising young filly called Virtuous in the stable by Encosta and we have just received two beautiful Encosta de Lago fillies to train - one out of Grand Echezeaux, making her a beautiful half sister to Darci Brahma, Burgundy and Saperavi.

We were a bit disappointed over the weekend though not to get some rain - I see on the news this morning that Paeroa got 134mls while we got only 12mls!  The interesting thing is that this drought has only one upside - the horses are absolutely loving this weather!

Last week after inspecting each horse I had to slightly reassess their feed as some were really doing too well.  This is a reflection of the fact that thoroughbreds just love the sunshine and get much of their nutrition from the two hard feeds a day that they receive at Te Akau.

We are full on at Te Akau Stud this week with our breakers. This is a time of the year I really enjoy.  This morning there will be 14 young horses that James rides with his team and gosh they are looking exciting types - we have really magnificent yearlings at the farm this year, just sensational.

One I like as much as any is our Swiss Ace filly - she has blossomed since the sale and she is a stunning, precocious sort of filly and I bought her for just $25,000 - it is incredible to think you  could buy such a quality filly at such a cheap price - she was a bargain!

If you would like to be involved in this filly - give Karyn a call today as there are now only three shares remaining - she is in the office all day on 07 825 4701.

This is a really exciting week for us as on Wednesday we travel to Wellington for Karyn's investiture by the Governor General at Government House which takes place on Thursday.  Karyn was honoured by the Queen for services to the community, to the arts and to racing so she has a very proud husband going to Wellington.

After the event we are having a special dinner and I am taking my old school master Ian McKinnon with us. Ian is the former Deputy Mayor of Wellington and is now the Chancellor of Victoria University and is a past Headmaster of Wanganui Collegiate and past Head of the Lower School at Eton College.  Eton is the most famous public school in England situated pretty much next door to Windsor Castle.

Last week at Matamata we had a colt called Rockfast run third in a very strong race, previously he had been runner up in the Listed Matamata Slipper.  Initially I was perhaps a little disappointed that he didn't win but I have studied the race again and again and I feel that the two horses that beat him could be quite exceptional.  Afterall it is amazing that in the same race last year, the following made up the first three:

Kirramosa was first - she went on to win the Group 1 VRC Oaks, the runner up was Puccini who won our Group 1 NZ Derby and third was Miss Mossman who won the Group 1 NZ Oaks at Trentham over the weekend.  So all are now Group 1 winners at 2400m so if the same can be taken out of this year's race then Rockfast is surely on a Group 1 path.