Te Akau Monday Update

David writes:

Gee we have had a full on few days.  On Thursday our youngest daughter Julia-Rose and I flew to Christchurch to meet Karyn.  It was Karyn's birthday and we had our South Island owners' function.

It was a most successful cocktail party between 6pm and 8pm.  It was marvellous to see all our South Island friends who have invested with us and we will be making this an annual occasion.  It was great for Karyn and I to see how much fun everybody was getting out of their horses that they have with us and many are looking forward to investing again with us at the coming sales.

I knew it would be a successful weekend when Mark Walker told me a week ago he had a pretty good horse running on Friday night in Singapore.  As usual when Mark is confident, home it rolled and got the weekend off to a great start.

On Friday afternoon I went to the stables with Dave McCarthy to inspect our horses.  These days we used the stables of Lance Robinson that were previously occupied by Peter and Dawn Williams.  Pam Gerard paraded all the horses for us.

First out was Bronte Lass, then Wolfwhistle, then Rockfast.  I turned to Dave McCarthy and said, “don't they look stunning. Perhaps we are in for a good day tomorrow”.  Pam Gerard is great travelling with these horses.  Nobody in the business is more capable than she is.

Looking after our six carnival horses we have had Pam, our top apprentice Dan Miller and our Racing Manager Jamie Richards.  I frequently say to owners that some people can take a lot of shortcuts in racing but they all count - if you want to win the good races at Carnival time you need three top staff members to look after six top horses.

The horses certainly did not let us down at Riccarton with our three horses all racing well.  Bronte Lass started the day off in fine fashion winning Race 3. This was a great Matt Cameron ride that should be shown at the apprentice schools.   Ten out of ten.  Matt waited until she was all balanced up, 300 metres out Bronte Lass was on the right leg and Matt went for her and she accelerated brilliantly.  Once Matt hits the front not many jockeys can get past him, he is just so strong.

Wolfwhistle won the next race and Rockfast went a super race in the 2000 Guineas to finish second.  Wait for him to get up to 2000 metres.  Rockfast will finish up being a very good horse.  So two wins and a second at Riccarton and Tiara rounded off a super day for Jason Bridgman by winning the last race at Te Rapa. Well done Jason on a great day!

The track at Riccarton was perfect for young horses and there was a terrific crowd at Riccarton so well done to the CJC.   Rockfast and Wolfwhistle will travel home today and will have a week to spell at Te Akau ready for Christmas racing.

So on Sunday it was back to the farm for me while Karyn has stayed in Christchurch as she is again the MC for the Fashion in the Fields at Addington of its huge NZ Cup Day on Tuesday.

The last week has also been very busy at Te Akau Stud. We have been busy shearing the sheep - 800 ewe hoggets, 3000 lambs and 2200 ewes.  We are lucky that we have a six-stand shed so it does not take too long.  We had 200 ewes and 250 lambs left to shear this morning and the job is all done.

There have been beautiful growing conditions recently in the Waikato with our bulls putting on about 2.1 kgs a day. It is a great thrill to have plenty of grass to take advantage of the record beef prices.  One unit that we sold last week (35 steers) made over $2,300 each.  I make no apology for being excited as I have waited 35 years for these prices!

All my attention in the next two weeks is on the Ready to Run Sale. I have spotted a horse that I think can win the 2000 Guineas this time next year and I will be also buying horses to race in Singapore where I remind you a maiden race is worth $75,000.

Shares in these horses normally sell very quickly so if you want to be in the team with Karyn and me, let me know now so you are not disappointed.

From this week on we intend to take our communications to the next level so watch this space as we have some very exciting dcevelopments coming your way!

Tonight of Trackside at 7.00 pm there is a great review programme on racing called Weigh In on channel 62.  This  programme is hitting its straps and is well worth watching.