Te Akau Monday Update

David writes:

Affirmation - you beauty!

I haven't cheered a horse home so much since Distinctly Secret won at Te Rapa when Robbie Waterhouse was fielding there about 13 years ago.

I so wanted Affirmation (who we know as "Rocky") to win and he got up narrowly with Champion Singapore jockey Manuel Nunes riding for his life - this was a true fairytale ending for this very special horse.

Rocky is one of the most beautiful racehorses that we have ever had the privilege to train.  He is a kind, loving horse who all our staff (and their children) adore.  He is, quite simply, an institution.

I purchased Rocky (Fastnet Rock/Affirmed Lane) from the Karaka Premier Sale in 2008 - a striking looking grey who has gotten lighter and lighter with age.  He first raced in New Zealand in late 2009, recording his first Kiwi win at Rotorua in November that year, his second coming at Awapuni in June 2010.  In his nine New Zealand starts, he won twice, was runner up three times and had three other minor placings - earning $15,040.

When Mark Walker headed to Singapore, Rocky became one of our foundation horses to join Mark and what a relationship they have had together.  Sound and determined, in the past four and a half years he has raced 81 times, recording 9 wins and 16 other placings for stakes approaching $330,000.  So in total an 11 race winning career earning about $350,000 in prizemoney.

Last night he ran his last race and how fantastic for his owners that he has gone out on such a high (winning) note!  Maybe he had a sense of the occasion as he fought like a tiger.

The great news is that Rocky will not be lost to racing - he is now going to become a Clerk of the Course horse at Kranji.  Mark Walker has done a simply amazing job with training this horse and we salute both his skill and Rocky's courage - he always tried his heart out.  We hope you enjoy the pictures of Rocky below - both before he went to Singapore (bottom photo with one of our staff member's children) and during his time there.  The top two photos are with Rocky's number one fan Zavier Walker - see the video with him below! I am sure you can see the gentleness of this lovely horse - this is our salute to him!

Talking about Singapore racing, not long now until our tour takes off - we have a full contingent and are really excited about linking up with Mark and Julia and spending time with them and our horses.  Mark had another top weekend and trained a winning double with Jimmy Rea cruising home on Friday and of course Affirmation on Sunday.

It was also a great day's racing at Te Rapa on Saturday - 12 races and all!  I thought it was terrific to see our vet Dr Doug Black and his partners sponsor the Listed Hamilton Vets Equine 2YO feature.  I love to see companies and businesses that do so well out of racing, put something back in.

While we didn't have a win at Te Rapa, we were very proud of Unsurpassed's effort in the Listed feature to finish second, beaten by a narrow margin - ironically he was out-finished by a Darci Brahma filly having her first start - you must have noticed what a great season Darci Brahma is having!

Further afield, I also got a thrill out of seeing the colt out of Princess Coup win his first start so comprehensively in Hong Kong last night - he looks a colt with heaps of potential. Staying with the international theme, the Fastnet Rock colt that I purchased in Ireland in 2013 debuted at Sligo in Ireland overnight and ran a very good race for third.  Trained by David Wachman, Torcedor is out of Magnolia Lane who is a half sister to the champion four time Ascot Gold Cup winner Yeats.  He went a very good race, tracking the leaders in 5th and kept on well in the closing stages, just missing second by a neck.

This morning we have eight horses coming home from the stable to spell and two yearlings that have finished their breaking in will be heading to our Matamata stable for the first time.  Talking about breaking in, this is certainly the best "crop" of young horses this year we have ever broken in here at the farm.

One colt that is starting to look very impressive is our O'Reilly colt out of the stakes' winning Zabeel mare Royal Era who we purchased in Sydney.  This is an unbelievable cross - O'Reilly/Zabeel - that has left top horses like Silent Achiever and O'Marilyn to name just two.

In In the next week or so, we will begin to advertise this colt across nationwide media so he will then sell very quickly - if you would like a share in him don't delay!  If you would like to win a Group 1 NZ Derby or a big Cup then take a share in this colt!  He has class written all over him and wasn't expensive.  Looking at him working here at the farm this morning, I can see that he is a real chance to live right up to his very good looks.