Te Akau Monday Update

David writes:

Our weekend started really well with Mark winning another race in Singapore on Friday night.  The winner was Zac Star Destroyer and you know you are training well when you are winning a race with a rising 9YO.

In New Zealand we went very close with the team with seconds and thirds but no wins.  My view is quite simple - you don't win every day but keep doing the basics well with attention to detail with every horse and it is only a matter of time until that luck changes.  I was at Matamata on Saturday and all our horses looked in terrific order and it won't be long until they all start saluting the judge.

I attended the Matamata races and really enjoyed the day's racing - the track was in excellent condition and great friends of Te Akau Gavin and Shane Wealleans sponsored the main race the Listed Team Wealleans Matamata Cup!

Our main focus currently is turning to the Cup Carnival at Riccarton.  We already have two horses in the South Island and Pam Gerard travelled with another two this morning - Madame Jamai and Flaming.

Flaming (pictured above) and Darci's Dream will race next in the Listed Ray Coupland Stakes at Ashburton on Saturday - this is a race that we have won seven times.  It is a beautiful lead up race to the Group 1 Guineas.  Last year we won it with Costa Viva (with Chambord runner up) who of course went on to win the coveted NZB Filly of the Year series.  Our previous stable winners include King's Rose, Sea Saint, Princess Coup, King's Chapel - so we have quite a formidable record in this event!

Yesterday Karyn and I flew south and we have included a couple of days in Queenstown together in our itinerary. Karyn shouts us down here most years to celebrate our wedding anniversary (well we are a bit late this year!) - it's a beautiful day in the South and we are having a quiet day before watching Weigh In on Trackside and then heading out for dinner.  Tomorrow we are having lunch at the famous Amisfield Vineyard restaurant (pictured below) which we are looking forward to.

But back to racing - we have some pretty smart horses trialling at Waipa this week and Cambridge next week.

One horse I am really looking forward to seeing have his first start is Imperium - a 3YO gelding by Encosta de Lago out of the great mare Ethereal.  He has really excited Matt Cameron with the way he has been working recently.  I bought this horse at Karaka for $400,000 from the draft of Pencarrow Stud.  This horse was put into a syndicate of four and we have a terrific group of people in this syndicate who race him.

Another colt in this syndicate that I really like and who will be trialling in about four weeks is Sequitur - a High Chaparral colt that I purchased from the Ready to Run Sale last year.

I mentioned Weigh In earlier - Trackside's new review show that screens on Monday nights - this programme has the makings of being really good, so I hope you tune in to channel 62 at 7.00pm tonight.