Te Akau Monday Update

David writes:

Well it has been another really busy weekend for everyone at Te Akau. Of course the weekends are always important for Te Akau Racing Singapore with meetings almost every Friday night and Sunday day at Kranji.

Kranji is ideal for our horses as they do not have to travel any distance at all to race day and I know that our staff and horses alike love the facilities there.  If you haven't been racing in Singapore, next time instead of transiting through the city, stay for a weekend and go racing.  Mark and Julia will always help you with tickets to the races and great local information!  It is hard to believe that it is five years since they moved there.

The weekend started on Friday afternoon with Madame Jamai winning nicely at Timaru.  A mare by Minstrel Court who was raised at Te Akau Stud by us for her breeders Deirdre and Barry Neville-White, she won a good race during last year's New Zealand Cup Carnival so she looks to be on song to possibly repeat that feat.

On Sunday we had a special dinner to farewell David McCarthy and Sam Boyd, our two great friends who have been staying at Te Akau Stud since last week.  Close friends of Dave's from the South Island (now living in the north) Peter and Dawn Williams joined us as did Paul and Leanne Richards, Jamie's parents.  Jamie also spent the fun occasion with us as did our stable rider Matt Cameron (on a rare day off) and his partner Blair plus our daughter Julia-Rose and her partner Hamish.  It was a long day for Karyn who had been up since 4.15am to drive to Auckland to host "Weigh In" and then drive back and I can tell you she didn't get to bed until the wee hours today!

We enjoyed watching the Singapore races together and it was another winning weekend for Mark and our team with former Kiwi horse Asprey winning a Kranji Stakes D event worth S$38,000 - in fact Te Akau ran the quinella in the event with promising Idyllic Scenery finishing second to his stablemate.

Asprey became Mark's 68th winner for the season and with 17 meetings remaining for the year, we hope Mark's six-win advantage on the Trainers' Premiership (click the link below) is enough to see him home for his first honours in Singapore - to go with his five New Zealand Premierships.

http://www.turfclub.com.sg/Racing/Pages/Premiership.aspx?Category=Trainer

Racing as we know is an unpredictable business with lots of highs and lows, plenty of frustrations but many rewards.  This is why we all get just so excited whenever we win.  The thrill for our owners is terrific and for us, a sense of pride for a job well done for our owners.  The excitement is hard to adequately describe and of course helps to deal with the disappointments we all have from time to time.  As we know, racing is not for the faint-hearted!

The last three weeks have been no exception - lots of wins but also some frustrations.  It is heart-breaking when a horse has a hiccup but it can often be a blessing in disguise.

I am just delighted with how Steve, Jamie and our whole Matamata team, also Pam Gerard who is overseeing the South Island Te Akau horses, have started the season.  Our horses are really thriving so expect to see plenty more winners in the tangerine.

Steve and Jamie currently sit in second place on the Trainers' Premiership with 16 winners already.  This is a great effort considering we have been dogged with winter-type tracks for much of the early part of our new season in New Zealand - here are the current New Zealand Trainers' Premiership standings:

http://www.nzracing.co.nz/RaceInfo/Trainers.aspx