Te Akau Monday Update

David writes:

What a fantastic weekend we had in Singapore with Mark Walker on fire winning three races on Friday and another really good win with Rise 'n' Shine last night.

Rise 'n'Shine is a full brother to Alert who performed really well in New Zealand and is by Zabeel out of Kay's Awake who was a really top mare who ran good places behind Darci Brahma in races like the Telegram Handicap.

Karyn and I had our first quiet weekend for the year at the farm.  This morning we have new owners coming out to inspect the horses and to look at what is available.  We still have shares in some really nice horses.  For example we have a Pins filly that we paid $65,000 for.  I have not even tried to sell  shares in this filly yet because I thought that it was a filly of such quality that we could even race her ourselves but you can have a look at this filly being sold under our video section.  SO just click onto the video section and you will see this filly being sold.  Since coming  in from the sales this filly has absolutely thrived and is a classic example of the sale coming just a little bit too soon for her to look her best.  She was bred by Raffles Farm who have had stunning success in New Zealand in the last twelve months with the Sacred horses.

It is still really dry on the farm but the dews are starting to get heavy and this morning there was a decent fog until about 9am and the farm is just slowly trying to green up a little bit although it is still looking very brown.

This morning there were 18 horses worked that are in the breaking in process and I find this the most exciting time of the year  and I find this the most exciting time of the year to see these beautiful young thoroughbreds being ridden for the first time and developing to when they can go out on the farm.  It really is exciting.

We are also busy with the tractor feeding out 11 bales of haylage to the cattle just to keep them steaming along so that when the rain does come they are thriving and they go forward in great condition for the winter.

This Wednesday I am going to the Matamata races as it is a farewell for a great Matamata man Dr Jim Marks.  Jim has done a lot of work for me over the years and is regarded as a world class vet and I will be having a drink with him on his retirement.