Te Akau Monday Update

David writes:

Well it was quite a weekend wasn't it?  What an epic All Blacks' battle - and then to see the Black Ferns claim the World title the next morning - just a fantastic effort.  You have to be proud of what our little country achieves in the sporting arena! We just keep punching well above our weight!

We watched the rugby with some special friends who stayed the night on Saturday and then on Sunday I was conducting job interviews all day.

The news keeps coming in that more foals are being delivered and in the past few days we have welcomed a Rock 'n' Pop filly out of Savabeel mare Molly Coco and another Rock 'n' Pop filly out of Primo Quest - interestingly she's a mare that has yet to deliver a colt - and a Burgundy/Fashion Forward colt arrived at Cambridge Stud in the early hours of Sunday morning.

We still have a good number of foals to look forward to including babies by Darci Brahma, Iffraaj and Tavistock - together with more by Burgundy and Rock 'n' Pop.

On Friday night we saw a milestone for Te Akau Singapore trainer Mark Walker as he notched up his 70th win for the season ... with a treble of wins on Friday night.  The Singapore Turf Club commentators were very complimentary about Mark's efforts to now be a whopping 25 wins ahead on the Trainers' Premiership and discussing whether he "can be caught".

Well you learn in racing, never say 'never' but if I was a betting man you'd have to say it would be hard to catch Mark now - they even worked out that for Mark to reach the magic 100 wins for the season in Singapore, which I don't think has been done previously, he would need 1.15 winners from every race meeting until the end of the season in December - finding the .15 of a horse would be the challenge you'd think!!

Our first Singapore winner on Friday night was First Light, a Duporth gelding that was offered to our Te Akau New Zealand trainers Stephen and Jamie by owner-breeders Monovale Holdings after being passed in at the 2015 New Zealand Bloodstock Select Yearling Sale.

Taken along quietly through the educational stage and allowed time to fill out his frame, First Light had his first and only trial as a summer three-year-old in February at Matamata. He jumped well to lead from barrier one for Opie Bosson and found a two-length advantage to the 200m and won untouched, with his ears pricked, by one and a half lengths. His time, 59.3, for 1000 metres on footing rated Good3 was the fastest on the day.

His dam, All Our Chips (Redoute's Choice), was a winner over 1100 metres in Australia, and she has now left three individual winners. The family goes back to a favourite of many when he was racing: All Our Mob (What A Guest) - his 13 victories included four Group Ones and earnings of A$2.5m.
First Light has a notable Bletchingly (Biscay) cross in the fifth line of his pedigree.

“He's quite a big horse, going for a break now and he'll get better,” Mark told me when he updated me on Saturday.

“Jamie told me there was a lot of improvement in him, as he was a late developing sort of horse, and his owner is a new client from Malaysia, so it's good that he's won.  He's only had the three runs and I told the owners that he would go for a break, win, lose, or draw. If you give them time to acclimatise, they come back a much better horse.”

Interestingly too, the third placed Iffragal (3 f Iffraaj - Regal Thrills, by Royal Academy) was purchased by me for $200,000 at the 2016 New Zealand Bloodstock Premier Yearling Sale, from the draft of Lyndhurst Farm.

She was also given tutelage by the Te Akau Racing team at Matamata, and following a good first up fourth at the trials to subsequent Welcome Stakes (Listed, 1000m) and Champagne Stakes (Listed, 1200m) winner Prom Queen (Super Easy), she was very professional winning her next trial by four lengths in November at Te Teko.

On debut as a two-year-old in December at Te Rapa, she ran on strongly for second in the $30,000 Wentwood Grange 2YO Premier 1100 metres - a super first up performance in a stakes' race - and following a notable effort for fifth to Felton Road (Pins) at Ellerslie, she was somewhat unlucky not to gain a start in the $1m Karaka Million (Listed, 1200m), when requiring a scratching, in a race won by stable-mate and Champion Two-Year-Old nominee Melody Belle (Commands).  There's no doubt about it, we were stiff not to have Iffragal in the Karaka Million, as she had worked very well with Melody Belle on Tuesday morning leading up to race.

The second of Mark's winners was former New Zealander Bao Shan Magic (5 g Magic Albert - Nephtys, by Redoute's Choice) in the $60,000 Class 4 1200 metres.  It was just his second Singapore start and Mark said  "we gave him a fair bit of time to get his first start, because it was quite a hot day when he ran and you just have to be patient with some of them. Wait until they tell you that they're feeling good again and that's when you plan their next start. It's a little bit different to New Zealand.

“He'll get better over ground. His form at home was around 1400m and 1600m, but I kept him really fresh [for 1200m] and while they acclimatize I don't like to step them up in distance too quick. You may have to sacrifice a couple of runs, but there are benefits long-term if you let them acclimatize without stepping them up too soon."

Then the 'third leg of the winning treble' came with Justice Light (4 g Darci Brahma - Amaryllis, by Red Ransom) who is really hitting his straps.  A winner of his previous start on 28 July, he extended his record to three wins and three seconds from eight starts with a gutsy all-the-way effort in the second of the $60,000 Class 4 1200-metre races.

From a great family, I bought this now-gelding for $120,000 at the 2015 New Zealand Bloodstock Premier Yearling Sale, from the draft of Pencarrow Stud.  He was a good, strong, running type of horse. Mark trained his mother to win eight races, including the Darley Plate (Gr. 3, 1200m) at Ellerslie, and of course Mark also trained Darci Brahma to win five Group One races.  At the time of purchase, I really wanted to buy this colt and thought he was particularly good value at the price.

Jockey Vlad Duric seized the opportunity from barrier one and Justice Light led the field at the good clip. He quickened to a two-length advantage inside the 300m and displayed tenacity to withstand a late challenge from Moritz Eclipse (another by Darci Brahma).

Mark reported that “it was a really good effort to win. Vlad was sort of damned if he did and damned if he didn't (lead) and they were taking him on four wide. And if he'd taken a trail he could have been blocked for a run.

“Vlad's riding in great form and so is Zawari and Shafiq is too. He (Shafiq) just hasn't had the luck lately, but he's still riding very well. We've got three riders that are doing a great job and riding very well.

“We know the family so well because we trained the mother and the father.  Amaryllis got better as she got older. I had her until she was a four-year-old, and after I left for Singapore Rambo (Steven Ramsay) and Julia (Ritchie) had her as a five-year-old. That was her best season and they did a fantastic job with her. She was a hell of a good mare.

“It's hard to win three in row, so I'll probably give him a bit of a freshen-up now. He's run on two quite firm tracks in a row, so I'll give him some swimming and muck around with him on the treadmill and things like that. He may not race again for six weeks.”

Justice Light is another product from the outstanding offerings of Pencarrow Stud. His grand-dam, Lafleur (Zabeel), impressed winning on good ground and rated Third top filly on the NZ 3YO Free Handicap, and there is no shortage of quality throughout the family, which goes back to champion filly Habibti (Habitat), the fourth dam. Habibti was Top of the 1983 European 3YO Classification, and Top Filly of the 1982 Irish 2YO Free Handicaps.

Mark with his incredible team of Gus and Karen Cutterbuck and Robbie Hewetson have been dominant all season and we are really proud of them all.  They work so hard and are all proud Kiwis who are great ambassadors for Te Akau and the whole New Zealand industry.  It would be great to see Mark claim his second Trainers' Premiership - just reward for everyone's hard work and skill.

Meantime our New Zealand team is getting fired up for a big season ahead and we have a nice group of horses to trial tomorrow at Te Teko - and of course everyone is eagerly looking forward to the first Group 1 raceday of the new season this Saturday at Hawkes Bay where Gingernuts heads the team travelling to Hastings, racing in the Group 1 Tarzino Trophy.

Good luck to everyone - and looking forward to the trials tomorrow where the following horses will step out:

Don'tblamethemusic
Royal Success
Bak Da Master
English Rose
Beau Geste
Cloudburst
3f Fastnet Rock - Gipsy Countess
Embellish
3f Burgundy - A La Votre
Lucy Wyldstyle
Lady Amadeus