Te Akau Monday Update

David Ellis writes:

What a truly beautiful winter's day we have at Te Akau here today.  Not a cloud in the sky, it is warm and the grass is still growing.  We have more grass than normal for this time of the year and the stock look absolutely terrific condition.  We are right in the middle of lambing and in one paddock last night with 40 ewes we had nine lambs - four sets of twins and one single.  It is great weather for the lambs to start off.  They then get strong and then they can withstand the cold patch that we will undoubtedly get in August.

Karyn and I are normally in Honolulu at this time of the year but for health reasons we decided not to go this year so this is the first July that we have spent at home for some time.  The staff here at Te Akau Stud are infuriated because it is the warmest July that we have had for many years. 

This week I am going over to Matamata to see the horses that are in training and I have got meetings with potential new owners.  

Tomorrow here at the farm we are putting on three truck and trailer loads of fertiliser with Team Wealleans from Matamata. Shane and Gavin Wealleans have a number of horses with Te Akau and are involved in Burgundy. I really enjoy doing reciprocal business wherever possible.

We only have two yearlings left to break in at the farm.  We have a particularly nice Saperavi gelding owned by Aussie and Leslie Browne who is heading to Singapore but first he will be educated at our Matamata stable and we have a particularly attractive Savabeel colt owned by Mr Ong. 

Mr Ong is a very lucky owner as last night he gave us all a huge thrill when his two year old WAR AFFAIR who I bought at the Premier Karaka Sale from Trelawney Stud for $70,000 won the $200,000 Group 3 2YO Championship in Singapore ensuring that he will be the Champion 2YO in Singapore - after his resounding Group 2 win in May.  This will be the fourth champion 2YO that I have purchased from the Karaka Premier Sale - Maroofity, Darci Brahma and Warhorse have all been previous Champion 2YOs.

Everybody knows Mark Walker is a great trainer but gee with these two year olds he really knows what he is doing and our record with 2 and 3 year olds is certainly hard to beat.  All the good two year olds that Te Akau has had over the years have all gone on to win black type as 3 and 4 year olds.

We have a busy week coming up on Thursday I am heading to Auckland for meetings and on Thursday night Karyn and I are taking our niece Sacha Jones out for dinner - she is home from America after a successful professional tennis season and then on Friday we have the stallion parade and the broodmare sale at Karaka which Karyn and I will both be attending.

Next Wednesday Karyn and I head for Europe and are away for four weeks.  Karyn is spending time with our daughter in London and Italy while I will be attending horse sales at Deauville in France where we hope to buy a yearling for racing in Europe before bringing her back to New Zealand to breed. So if anyone is interested in having a share you would need to let me know as soon as possible.

This is an exciting new opportunity. Then my team is visiting some vineyards in France before going to Germany and we are attending a broodmare sale at Baden Baden. I am then going back to London and up to Newmarket to see some horses with the view to visiting some studs and one horse that is definitely on the list is Frankel who I am really looking forward to inspecting.  He has just completed his first season at stud.

We have only one horse left to race this season.  It is a horse called Rapid Gain. He is a Flying Spur horse that I bought at the Sydney sale for $90,000.  So let's hope that he can win and help get Matt Cameron over the line in the Jockeys' Premiership. One of the great thrills I have had in the last two seasons is watching how Matt's riding has improved.  He has gone from a good, average jockey to a really good, strong rider.  He has become a lot more patient in the last six months and his decision making during a race is now very sound. 

One thing  for certain is that with Matt's ability and determination if he does not win the Premiership he is not far away from it and I can see in time that he will be riding us for us in Singapore and in years to come he will be making a real name for himself.  

Back