Te Akau Monday Update

David writes:

We just got back yesterday after a great weekend of racing in Wellington. On Friday night we had a cocktail party for our owners in the Wellington region and what a fun night it was, with about 60 people coming to enjoy some good company. Everyone got along really well and chatted about their horses. It was great to have a number of Xtravagant's owners who were in Wellington for the weekend also join us and we had a good time.

We woke up to “alarm bells” on Saturday morning with light drizzle at Trentham all morning and I told then team that I didn't think that the track deterioration would suit Xtravagant and so it proved.

Xtravagant tried his heart out but was beaten in to fourth. Good luck to the team that won the race and especially to young Steve Cole who trained the winner and his Dad who races the horse with him.

Trentham has a really good committee and new President Wayne Guppy (who is also the Mayor of Upper Hutt city) is a top guy. I felt really sorry for them when the rain set in as they had so much planned for their big day and of course, the on course attendance was not large as a result of that inclement weather.

I was told that they had put some water on the track on Wednesday night and this made sense to me. On Friday it blew a gale and the wind was so strong that some planes couldn't land at the airport. There were nervous moments too on Saturday morning with concerns about the northern riders getting in. This wind would have sucked all the moisture out of the track so it would have been a perfect track without the persistent rain on the day.

It turned out to be a disappointing day all round for the Te Akau runners - apart from Flaming who was runner up in the first race - but that is racing. You have wonderful days where you win with excitement and grace, and days where you lose with dignity and congratulate the winners. That is the spirit of racing - or it should be - it certainly is the Te Akau philosophy. We are now that much closer to our next good day and we have had plenty of them this season so as I say, turn the page and let's move on.

You can see how good the season has been below, with the Te Akau NZ team of Stephen and Jamie still leading the Trainers' Premiership.

The owners of Xtravagant really deserve a lot of kudos because they took the defeat of their colt on outstanding fashion and as I just mentioned, you win with style and lose with dignity. They were great examples of this.

On Friday I had my third day in a row looking at yearlings. We started the day at Lyndhurst Farm owned by Mark and Shelley Treweek and then moved on to Sir Patrick and Lady Hogan's Cambridge Stud. We stopped for lunch to watch the Matamata races and it was so exciting to see Steve and Jamie produce yet another really smart winner in Zambezi Warrior (main picture with strapper Gary Ritchie and part owner Donna Rudd).

Zambezi Warrior is a Pentire colt that I bought from the Premier Sale at Karaka from the draft of the Fell's. His performance really impressed Sir Patrick Hogan and Joe Walls who watched the race with Jamie Richards and me. He will have his next start at Te Rapa in the Group 2 Darci Brahma Waikato Guineas and then head to the Derby. He looks a pretty exciting horse to me. You could have bought shares in him two years ago for a very reasonable cost as I bought him for only $75,000. It was a really smart, intelligent ride by Matthew Cameron on the 3YO - we trained this horse's dam Zambezi for the Fells and she was top class. It's a lovely family.

Going back to Trentham for a moment, I had the opportunity to speak to a number of different people and I was amazed at just how many people told me that they read our website very day. Seldom do we not have 1000 visits each day and recently a video we posted on our facebook page had over 25,000 views.

The nine horses that we bought on the Gold Coast had Jason and Katy up early at Te Akau Stud as they arrived home at 6.00am on Sunday morning, having landed at Auckland at around 3.00am. Shares in these horses are selling at record speed.

We are going to be very active at Karaka next week so if you are keen to be involved in our friendly team, I cannot stress enough to you how important it is to get in touch with us now. All of our horses sell so fast that my office team struggle sometimes to keep up with the demand!

Talking to people at the races, so many people also tell me that they also love hearing about everything happening on the farm so here is the latest farm news …

More rain is forecast to come tonight - we are having a wonderful growing season and we still have beautiful grass for the stock. Cattle prices have bottomed out and are on the way back up.

Today we sent 483 beautiful lambs off to the freezing works and last week we topped the five year old ewe fair in the Waikato with our ewes making just over $82. This week is all about preparing the farm for the yearlings that we buy at Karaka. For example every trough has been cleaned and every baton is straight and every blade of grass has to be spot on for the arrival of these new “babies”. It is very important that young horses go forward when they arrive home from the sales.

The horses from the Gold Coast as I said all arrived home bright and early and look in great shape and all went out to a nice paddock this morning.

I have now finished looking at yearlings on the farms and just have a couple of drafts I want to inspect at the sale ground this week. There are some magnificent yearlings in the sale this year and if you would like to be involved please call me or Karyn any time - I will be on 021 925 151 and Karyn is at home 07 825 4701. I am only too happy to have a chat with you to discuss a strategy over a cup of coffee or just over the phone. You are better to bid with me than against me!

I have been unbelievably impressed with the yearlings by Rock ‘n' Pop and Burgundy - they are both stallions with a real chance and their progeny should sell really well.