Te Akau Monday Update

David writes:

D.C. Ellis is a really happy man - yes the rain is here, beautiful rain at Te Akau this morning!

Trackside, Trackside what is happening? I came in to watch the first race last night from Singapore and without any warning they decide not to show the first two races.

Anyway we won the first race our 31^st winner since the 1 January when the new season started - an unbelievable achievement! Von Snitzel is a horse that I bought from the Karaka Premier Sale for $130,000 for John Galvin and his Fortuna syndications.

A few races later Mark Walker was back in the winner's circle with Chase who looks an outstanding horse in the making. We bought him at the Ready to Run Sale for $120,000 and he has now won three in a row - in fact three of his six starts.

Wasn't it amazing watching the races at Randwick on Saturday - these Championships as they call them are really taking off.  It was just so exciting to see how well New Zealand bred horses performed.  In the $4 million Group 1 Queen Elizabeth Stakes I thought Criterion was a good thing and so it proved, he just bolted in. I fell in love with this colt when I saw him at Blandford Lodge when he was a yearling.

However for me the highlight had to be seeing Darci Brahma claim his first Group 1 race in Australia.  What a great result it was for New Zealand in the Group 1 AJC Oaks won by the Darci Brahma filly Gust of Wind.  While this may have been Darci's first Group 1 win in Australia, he has of course already sired a Group 1 New Zealand Oaks' winner.  I am very proud of the success of Darci who I bought for $1.1 million (the top priced lot) from the 2004 Karaka Premier Sale.  As you know he went on to win five Group 1 races in his career when trained by Mark Walker - and on both sides of the Tasman too.  Team Te Akau purchased eight Darci Brahma yearlings at the Karaka Sales this year.

Karyn and I spent all yesterday in the office working selling the shares in horses that we bought in Sydney and they are proving very popular so if you are keen to be involved you will need ring us very quickly!  Take a look at the photo and our video of our Sydney filly - all class!

This afternoon my youngest daughter Julia Rose is taking me to see Rod Stewart. I met Rod Stewart almost 18 years ago when he came to the Te Rapa Races with his then wife Rachel Hunter. We had a very smart 2Y0 in race 3 called Matsqui and I told Rod that I thought he would win. Matsqui, who is now at stud in Australia, won by almost four lengths. Rod won a fortune that day and despite his security guards saying he had to get back to Auckland, he was very keen to have one for the road with a Te Akau farmer!

In New Zealand on Saturday, Jason had one runner in the Listed NZB Airfreight Stakes at Riccarton.  No Tricks (who was bred and is raced by Cushla and Paul Smithies) ran a super race for second and looks very hard to beat next Saturday at the same venue. We also have some good chances to race this coming week in New Zealand at Rotorua on Wednesday so watch for our preview.