Te Akau Monday Update

David writes:

What a truly fantastic week it has been for everyone at Te Akau. Over four days alone, we have enjoyed ten winners - two in Australia, three at Riccarton on Friday, three yesterday at Te Aroha, and two at Counties on Saturday. It has been an enormous thrill for everybody involved and one of those weeks you really stop and appreciate - from many perspectives: for our owners and for our team, and of course, the amazing grit and determination of our horses themselves.

I would like to sincerely congratulate everyone across the whole Te Akau team - at the farm, at our Matamata stable, at our Christchurch stable and also at our Cranbourne stable. Results like this only come through an enormous amount of hard work, dedication and teamwork, as well as massive support from our owners. I am extremely proud of every single human, and the horses, involved.

Yesterday’s three wins also took Mark Walker and Sam Bergerson to 50 wins already this season in New Zealand alone, with our prizemoney won for owners now exceeding $2 million - and with a superb strike rate of 5.5. That is an incredible achievement and a real credit to the commitment of the entire team.

At the moment I am spending a lot of time - probably on average three to four hours a day - going through the catalogues and doing pedigree research for the upcoming sales at the Gold Coast and Karaka. It is something I genuinely enjoy and I am very much looking forward to the opportunities that lie ahead.

Yesterday we also went to the home of our vet, Dr Douglas Black, who has just retired from full-time practice. Doug and his family hosted 60 people for lunch, and it was a beautiful afternoon with many familiar racing faces enjoying the opportunity to catch up. I didn't have a drink as I needed to drive to Auckland last night for blood tests today at 8am, followed by some medical appointments.

Tomorrow, however, I will be taking a day away from the catalogues and emails as I will be celebrating my birthday which I will be celebrating in Auckland with my family - a lunch I am really looking forward to.

Everything on the farm continues to be going well - the grass is a wonderful, deep green at present, although we will be needing some rain in the next two weeks. The stock is absolutely thriving, with the steers putting on around 2kgs a day. This will be the first week we haven’t sent any steers to the processors, but we will resume sending four units next week and then continue on from there. With the amount of grass we have, I felt we could afford to wait a week and put a bit more weight on them.

Last Friday we had our second lamb draft, with the lambs killed by Wilson & Hellaby and weighing out at 16.3kgs. The lambs that weren’t quite ready were drenched and we will have another draft in mid-January, and I think they will be looking very good by then.

Today we were making haylage on the farm, with 11 paddocks being cut. We mainly make haylage because it is a very good way of controlling grass growth through spring and summer, and it also gives us a valuable reserve of feed during winter if we ever need it.

On Saturday I will be heading to the races for the first time since I was in hospital, for Waikato Gold Cup Day. I am really looking forward to catching up with many good friends and people I haven’t seen for a while. It is always a great day’s racing and one that, as past Chairman and Life Members of the Club, both Karyn and I look forward to every year.

Just a reminder that we still have shares available in a handful of young horses from this year's sales, who are now two-year-olds. If you are looking for a Christmas present for a loved one, this is something that would go down very well. It's the gift that keeps giving - lease feel free to give me a ring anytime on 021 925 151.

Don't forget that we also have Te Akau gift vouchers - so you could also give a month's training fees, or some Te Akau merchandise that is selling like hot cakes.

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

Go the Tangerine! ?