Te Akau Monday Update

Date: 22 Jul 2013

Te Akau Monday Update

David writes:


This morning I had a call from Minister for Racing Hon. Nathan Guy informing me who the new Chairman of the New Zealand Racing Board was going to be.  Isn't it a shame that the greyhound code objected in the High Court to the government's appointment of Dr Alan Jackson as the previous chairman as he had the backing of both the harness and the thoroughbred codes.  I find that incredibly sad and destructive - anyway let's hope that the new Chairman is as good and she certainly deserves to be given every chance to make significant change with her Board at this crucial time for the industry.


Nathan Guy is certainly a very capable Minister - he took over the agriculture portfolio last year from David Carter who is now the Speaker of the House of Representatives.  What the racing industry has to do is to convince Nathan Guy that racing is a huge part of the overall New Zealand economy both in terms of exports and also in terms of employment with the number of jobs we provide. 


As we head into General Election year next year, there is certainly going to be discussion I hope with all political parties about what can be done to support the racing industry.


My point is that the government has put in about $40 million to the America's Cup challenge, they contributed something like $100 million to the Rugby World Cup and the last Labour government was prepared to fund a rugby stadium in downtown Auckland which was going to cost in the vicinity of $400 million so there is absolutely no reason for any government not to support racing and the economic argument to do so certainly stacks up and carries plenty of weight.


Every week we read how the Australian governments (federal and state) support racing as they understand how pivotal it is to the well-being of the economy.


Matt Cameron, Te Akau's stable rider has had a wonderful few days - with five races at Avondale today Matt Cameron starts the day only two wins behind Opie Bosson in the chase for Jockey Premiership honours for the season.


I have backed Matt at 2 to 1 to win but it will be a close shave.  Both jockeys have a close association with Te Akau - Matt being our current stable rider and Opie of course came to work at Te Akau when he was 14 years of age and was the champion apprentice before going on to be one of New Zealand's top riders.  Matt is riding at five meetings a week and when you add his trials and track work commitments onto that, it is an exhausting schedule.  Most people don't realise just how much effort and travel this involves and riding for example at 54kgs in the far North at Ruakaka on Saturday, Sunday in the South Island at Oamaru and the next day back north at Avondale - then trials and track work in between.  It tells you a lot about Matt's work ethic.


I got a huge thrill last night out of seeing Mark Walker win his 1000th race as a trainer - just an unbelievable effort for a guy who is only 41 years of age.  It was an added thrilled to win the race with a yearling that I bought from Sir Patrick Hogan's Karaka draft from his great My Tricia family that has been such a success for him over a lifetime.


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