Te Akau Monday Update

David writes:

What a fantastic weekend we had with our racing in Singapore - it was just fantastic to see the horses running so well and while we won four races, I can see a lot more wins in the not too distant future as some horses were racing below their best distances.

Last night we had a horse like Appellation who was having his second start in Singapore on the polytrack over 1200m and he ran home strongly for a super fourth, closing on the leaders all the way.  I can just see a horse like him coming out on the grass track in two weeks' time and winning well.

It's great to see all the horses run up to their potential - as you would expect to see from such a talented trainer as Mark Walker.

Two things which were negatives over the Christmas racing period which I hope will get sorted!

Firstly while I am pleased to say I believe the two channel system on Trackside is clearly improved BUT with two channels it is very sad that we couldn't even see the first six races from Singapore on New Year's Day.  If this is due to the fact that the TAB didn't have sufficient jetbet codes to carry betting on the first six races then surely it is time its antiquated system is updated.  If the TAB wants to grow betting on Singapore this is a huge backward step.

Another negative for the weekend was the scratching of Karyn's filly Enshrine at Woodville.  Two stalls down in the starting block a horse went right off but Karyn's filly stood there nice and still.  Then when they went to unload the misbehaving 2YO, Enshrine thought she was supposed to jump so she had a little go at the gates but stayed there nice and still.  She had the tiniest bit of superficial blood on her nose and she was immediately late scratched.

This filly was perfect - she had travelled all the way down to Woodville from Matamata and in my opinion we are getting way too politically correct in scratching these horses.  It is costing the industry a fortune and while no-one wants to have a horse go around (and nor should any) that has been hurt, this filly had nothing wrong with her and the vet at the start showed no judgement whatever in my opinion.

This morning I was out on the farm before daylight drafting cattle and moving stock around and giving last minute instructions to the wonderful team that we have here at the stud.  Shortly I am off again looking at yearlings.

I start at Milan Park, the former property of Bob Emery, which is just down the road from Trelawney Stud and then it is off to The Oaks Stud.  After that I will inspect Longland's Stud - this property is owned by Tony Pike's parents, Wayne and Vicki.

Today we are sending eight horses that have been spelling at the farm back into the stable and then it is all systems go handling mares and foals.  Luckily as we inspected a lot of yearlings in the last two weeks of December, I can have Wednesdays at Te Akau.

Tomorrow we are going to inspect yearlings in the Matamata area and I have been invited to stay at Valachi Downs with Kevin Hickman tomorrow night which I am looking forward to.

In between it will be father-of-the-bride speech writing time as my daughter's wedding is on Saturday!