Te Akau Monday Update

David writes:

Well the big news for Te Akau Racing is the very exciting win we had overnight in Ireland with Torcedor claiming the Group 3 Coolmore Vintage Crop Stakes beating a very good field in a brilliant front-running fashion.

This exciting stayer is by Fastnet Rock out of a full sister to Yeats in Magnolia Lane and he will now head to Royal Ascot - how exciting is that for Te Akau to have its first runner at Royal Ascot?

Bred by one of the very best breeders in Ireland David Nagle, I bought this horse at the Deauville Yearling Sale and he was Lot 1 and I paid 70,000 euros for him. David bred this horse with John Magnier so it is a very exciting result all round.  As a yearling he was a particularly athletic, good type that I was attracted to and I am thrilled for his owners - Sir Patrick Hogan, Sir Peter Vela, Laurie Laxon and our very good friend from Canada, Mohammed Moussa.

Congratulations to them all! and special thanks to Te Akau owner Brian Dowling who was at the race meeting and sent the photos below!

Te Akau was also prominent in the Southern Hemisphere over the weekend too with Singapore Champion Trainer Mark Walker again in the winners' circle, training a winning double on Sunday.  What a great job Gus and Karen, Robbie and Mark are doing with our horses in Singapore - the horses are racing so well, it is such a credit to them.

Further 'south' in this part of the world - well in Australia - Fortuna's Chance to Dance ran a good fifth in the $ 2 million Group 1 Sydney Cup and will now come home to spell at Te Akau Stud and be prepared for Spring racing.  The New Zealand team had to settle for seconds at Ellerslie on Saturday but I was still very pleased with how the horses performed.

Today we have a big team of horses trialling at Taupo,  including a good number of 2YOs.  The horses are not there to win but are there in most cases to be educated for next season.  We have a lot of horses that are now spelling at Te Akau Stud and it is just beautiful weather to be spelling horses with the sun on their backs and a lot of goodness in the grass now and you can just seen them thriving.

I am also picking there will be some very good foals bred in the Waikato this year as the foals have been weaned on the best feed you have ever seen and they have developed particularly well.

After a really busy time selling all the horses, Karyn and I enjoyed a quiet weekend in Raglan with some very good friends, George and Diane Brown.  George has been my builder and handyman since 1979 and all credit to him, he's still fit and very active and Diane of course is such a stalwart of everything in our community - she is a great volunteer and a fabulous organiser.

Keep an eye out for our trials' report - and have a great week ahead, with a special thought for tomorrow for those who sacrificed so much for us all.