Te Akau Monday Update

David writes:

What an unbelievable weekend Te Akau Racing had in Singapore.  Isn't it marvellous to see Mark Walker going so well? - he has a great team and they are on fire.  We need to remember too that this success is a win for the New Zealand racing and breeding industry.

To give you an example of how well Te Akau Singapore horses are going this is how our runners fared last night:

Race 1  Zac Command finished 3rd
Race 2  Hee's Ego finished 2nd (riding error was relegated to 3rd)
Race 3  Free happy finished 3rd
Race 4 Appellation finished 9th (no luck at all in the running)
Race 5  Sebrose won most impressively having his first start in 107 days
Race 9  Jimmy Rea backing up from last week finished 3rd in the Group 3 $200,000 3YO feature

This is on the back of two wins on Friday night.  On Friday it was the locally owned Catch Me Great and also Alpha Centauri who saluted the judge.

Alpha Centauri is another success story - the son of Keeper was purchased by me from Karaka for $60,000.  In his 18 Singapore starts he has won three times, finished 2nd five times, 3rd four times and has once been 4th - all this for $188,610 in stakes!

So three weekend winners for Te Akau Racing Singapore - well done Mark and the team.

I thought you would like to see our Te Akau Singapore "trainer in training" giving instructions at track work on the weekend. Karyn and my godson Zavier Walker was at the track at 4.30am on Saturday morning - keeping a close eye on everything.  He rang me on his way home from the track to inform me of which horses had worked well and the progress they were all making - and that from an eight year old!

I was delighted to see Sebrose win most impressively on Sunday.  He was purchased by me for A$230,000 from the Gold Coast Sale after he was passed in at Karaka.  What great value this horse was when you consider he is by the great sire Sebring, out of a mare who won the Group 1 New Zealand Oaks.  He is raced by some of our biggest supporters - people who just love their racing, people who are great to train for and are very supportive.  I am just so thrilled they have got yet another really good horse.

Yet another Te Akau Karaka yearling bites the dust!  Yes all shares in Lot 252 our Savabeel colt out of Almaviva (the half brother to Atacama) have been snapped up and we now have a waiting list.  This is great news but has left some very disappointed folks - this can so easily be avoided if you ring us as soon as you have seen a horse you are interested in.  The early birds ........

I went to the Matamata races on Saturday and all credit to the Matamata Racing Club, the track was just outstanding and the irrigation system has been a huge success.  Take a bow Graham Styles. the course manager, you really know how to prepare a track that will allow horses to race at the weekend and carry on to Ellerslie for the Cup Carnival.

The Club also had a super crowd on course and the place was buzzing - it reminded me of the first trip I ever had to the Matamata races when they had a big jackpot and the car parks were overflowing and people had to park down the road and on the verges outside the course.  It was a great atmosphere on course and also pleasing to see a good Waikato company J Swap sponsoring the Group 2 Matamata Breeders' Stakes.

The highlight for me on the day was seeing the return of Spellbinder after surgery.  She is a top class O'Reilly mare that I bought from Karaka for just $60,000.  She has had 10 starts, winning four times and placing four.  Her career highlights have been her win in the  Listed Soliloquy Stakes as well as the Listed Karaka 3YO Mile.  She was also runner up in both the Group 2 Sir Tristram Fillies' Classic and Group 3 James and Annie Sarten Memorial, and third in Costa Viva's Group 1 NZ 1000 Guineas. It was fabulous to see her go such a top race fresh up to finish second to Champion 2YO recite - she looks like she is in for a top season.

This morning I was out and about early with the fertiliser truck.  We fertilise our whole property in the last week of February/first week of March.  Today we are doing all the bull farm at 3CWT of 20% potassic/super 10 to the acre.

It is great to have Luke Copeland back at work - he was away last week as he and his wife Melissa welcomed a 10.5 pound baby boy!