Te Akau Monday Update

David writes:

It has been one of those rare events that really makes you proud.

To see the Te Akau team win three races in three countries in 17 hours from the early hours of Saturday morning NZ time to the early hours of Saturday evening - wow what an achievement.  I could not be more proud of the effort that everyone puts in - and for the support our owners give us in New Zealand, in Singapore and internationally.

At around 2am on Saturday morning NZ time, Distinctive Darci made it three wins on the trot for Mark Walker.  Now the winner of three of his four starts, this is a 3YO by Darci Brahma who I purchased from the draft of Curraghmore Stud at the 2015 Karaka Premier Sale for $100,000.  He is owned locally in Singapore by the Fairdeal Stable which has been a great supporter of Mark.

Distinctive Darci had to overcome a shocking draw so it was a very brave effort to win - he showed a good deal of heart to get up by a narrow margin.  He has now raced five times for three wins, a second and a fourth placing, earning S$138,937 in prize money from just those five starts.  He does look to have a very exciting future ahead of him.

While every win is something that we relish - I do also find it particularly satisfying when the winner is sired by a horse that I also selected, bought and Te Akau trained.  I bought Darci for $1.1 million from the 2004 Karaka Premier Sale and Mark Walker trained him to win five Group 1 races - four in New Zealand and one in Australia.  He was Champion 2YO, Champion 3YO and Champion Sprinter/Miler as a 4YO.

Gosh the Darci Brahma's race well in Singapore - well, they race well in most places to be fair - but they do seem to relish the conditions at Kranji.  This has been reinforced by the fact that Darci has been the Champion Sire of Singapore for three out of the past four years and on the year he didn't win, he was runner up.

In that vein of selecting and training colts that go on to be sires - we eagerly await the first race day starts for the 2YO crops of Rock 'N' Pop and Burgundy.  We have already had a lovely Burgundy filly win a trial impressively this season so it won't be long until the babies of these two stallions start hitting their straps.

Saturday was a bit of a knife edge for the team with the rain that had hit Hawkes Bay in the lead up to its final day on Saturday.  I had to make a decision on race morning whether we would run our unbeaten, Group 1 colt Heroic Valour and, with no further rain forecast, I opted to start him in the Group 2 Sacred Falls Hawkes Bay Guineas.  This is a race we have won with Darci Brahma and Tell A Tale with Scrutinize very unlucky when second last year.

Heroic Valour started as the second favourite on Saturday but we knew that the fact that he had never raced with any success out of the "Dead zone" of tracks would be a concern.  The challenge was that if he didn't start, his programme towards the Group 1 NZ 2000 Guineas would come under pressure - hence he took his place.

In conditions that left Heroic Valour at sea, it was heartening to see him try his heart out and rally valiantly to finish third.  Then we turned our attention to Riccarton following Heroic Valour's good placing.  Another of our exciting 3YO's in Hall of Fame was contesting the Guineas' Trial and he was very impressive, cruising away to win by three lengths in the hands of Michael McNab.  The bookies have accordingly made him fourth favourite for the NZ 2000 Guineas, a race Te Akau has won five times in the past 11 years with King's Chapel, Darci Brahma, Tell A Take, Rock'n' Pop and last year, Xtravagant.

Other good efforts came from our 2YO Pierro colt Seirios who has a heap of talent and will have learned a lot from his first race day experience.  Imperium also was unlucky not to win, the son of the great mare Ethereal just getting run down in the final stages of his 2000m event.

Jamie Richards was on course at Riccarton joined by Kris and Nicole Shailer who are looking after our southern team - and they horses looked a picture, a real credit to them.

So "two wins down" and one to go - and meantime, Stephen Autridge had headed back to Melbourne with Shillelagh down to race at Caulfield.

After the last race at Hastings we headed back to Black Barn where we were staying and had a lovely dinner, joined by our stable rider Matt Cameron and his partner Blair.  Just after 7pm we were glued to Caulfield and just about shouted the roof off the lodge when Shillelagh looked to have got up by the narrowest of margins.  Did she?  Didn't she? We sure thought she did - and yes!  The daughter of Savabeel was bred and is raced by one of the nicest couples you would meet in Christopher Grace QSM and his wife Susanna.  Shillelagh really deserved the win after having been denied at her first Australian start - very unlucky she was.

Sunday we headed to the Elephant Hill winery for lucnh and it was terrific to have Andrew (Butch) Castles, the CEO of Hawkes' Bay Racing join us with his wife Tess.  A lovely, relaxed Sunday was had by all.

Early to the airport today for Karyn - she left at 6.30am to get to Napier airport to fly to Auckland to host Weigh In - and I am currently en route home via Taupo.  It's a busy week for everyone - in other news Xtravagant arrived home in the small hours of Sunday morning and Jamie Richards reported he was happy to be home, settled straight back in and looked in terrific order.  We will send him for his bone scan this week and await the results with concern - let's hope he is 100% and we find no underlying issues.  On the other hand if we do, it will help us understand his disappointing Australian campaign.

Let's hope this weather improves soon so that we can get some decent races surfaces in the North Island - our team is raring and ready to fire!