Te Akau Monday Update

David writes:

What a weekend!

I was glued to the television on Saturday from almost morning to midnight - from racing to the general election and I can promise you that the racing was much more exciting with clear cut finishes too!

It was just wonderful to win the $200,000 Group 1 Windsor Park Plate on Saturday and the Listed Karaka Classic on Sunday - two stakes' races within 24 hours.  Such a terrific result for Gingernuts' and Chance to Dance's owners and also for all of our team who have done an amazing job working with our horses during this particularly difficult Winter and Spring.

Saturday at Hastings was the scene of Gingernuts' third Group 1 scalp - it always gives us such a sense of satisfaction when a three year old makes the transition to four year old racing - and in such distinguished style.  Gingernuts had shown everyone in the Group 1 Tarzino Trophy a fortnight ago at Hastings on the first day of the Carnival that he would be a force to be reckoned with on Saturday.  His fifth in the Tarzino was full of merit after the severe interference he copped on the home turn and punters agreed, backing him in to about $2.90 favouritism.

What I love about this horse is not only his kind and relaxed nature, but his determination to win.  Jerry showed a ton of heart on Saturday to hold all the challengers at bay - well done to the whole "G-nuts" team!

All credit too to our stable rider Opie Bosson who rode a pearler - and Steve and Jamie who have this horse tracking beautifully towards his tilt at the Caulfield Cup.

Gingernuts - or "Jerry" as we know him - is stabled at what we call the 'middle barn' at the Matamata racecourse.  This barn is home to 20 of our horses and for the last few years has been managed by Nicole Shailer.  Nicole is a world-class horsewoman and only stopped working two weeks ago for us as she and husband Kris (head of our colt barn) are due to welcome their baby daughter in a fortnight.

In the interim, Nicole's role has been filled by Mason Stevens.  Mason is a great young man who has a big future.  He is really passionate about our horses and harks from Dunedin where his father is the track manager at the Wingatui racecourse.

On Sunday  it was an early start at 5am as I went to Auckland with Karyn to appear as a guest on "Weigh In" on Trackside TV. Then that afternoon we saw Chance to Dance win the Listed feature at Counties after he didn't make the field for the Group 1 at Hastings and gee he was also impressive.  He is an Irish galloper who was imported into Australia for Lloyd Williams.

After an unsuccessful Melbourne Cup attempt last year, he was entered in to the inaugural Inglis Chairman's Sale for horses in training where I bought him for Fortuna Syndicators.  You might remember that he ran second in the Group 1 Sydney Cup that was aborted being declared a 'no-race', and in the re-run a week or so later, he was a gallant fifth.

Chance to Dance is now second favourite for the Group 1 Livamol Classic in two week's time, back at Hastings, where he will square off against Gingernuts, the outright favourite.  It will be Gingernuts' last race in New Zealand before, all going well, he heads to Melbourne.

To have bought both of the first two favourites for this important race is something I am very proud of.

I felt very sorry for the Hawkes Bay Racing Club with the unexpected rain it got leading in to its meeting and I will make this comment - I attend a lot of race meetings each year and nobody does it better than Hawkes Bay Racing's Andrew 'Butch' Castles.  Even though we were really keen for a good track for Gingernuts, given the circumstances the Club made the correct decision to apply irrigation.

If the Hastings track had been a Good1 or a Good2 there would have been a lot of scratchings (probably including Gingernuts) - the modern thoroughbred cannot cope with a track that is like concrete and just imagine if the rain then came on the day - the track would most likely have been too dangerous to continue the race meeting on.

It must be hard to be a Club CEO and track manager but all credit to Butch and his team, they communicated fully and well over the lead-in period so everyone knew what was happening.  It's not an easy job they have, that's for sure.

We had no luck with racing at Riccarton in the weekend as, with the Heavy10 track conditions, we decided to scratch our six runners but you will see them out and about, racing soon.  Our team in the South is being looked after by Daniel Miller and his partner, our apprentice Tegan Newman.  Dan is a very important part of the Te Akau team and is a brilliant horseman who has a natural ability with the horses.

There were still two very positive things to come out of the Riccarton meeting.  The Canterbury Jockey Club staged one trial just for two year olds prior to the first race which we won with a very smart Fastnet Rock filly called Avantage who we have sent down for the Carnival.  She was ridden by our apprentice Tegan who also won her first race at Riccarton on Saturday.  Tegan is a jockey you will hear a lot more of in the next two years.

Another massive thrill for me was seeing a Burgundy filly win the Group 3 Gold Trail Stakes at Hastings on Saturday, a fortnight after winning a Listed fillies' event. Wow she killed them!  Burgundy is a very exciting sire, very exciting indeed.

Tomorrow our attention turns to the Te Teko trials and we have some very good young horses who will be gaining further education through their trials' experience.

Today we have seen another exciting development, a treadmill has been installed at our Matamata stable.  This is a significant investment we are making and one I know will be of great benefit to our racing team.  Our Singapore trainer Mark Walker, who is currently 26 wins clear on the Trainers' Premiership, absolutely swears by them as a strategic training tool - especially for unsound horses as working in a straight line is so important for their well-being.

Last week we also saw two promising young 3YO geldings show what they were made of with Te Akau Shark winning on debut and Wandering Eye (who was runner up on debut) stepping out to win his second start in fine fashion.  Te Akau Shark was very impressive - we race him with a couple of my best New Zealand clients and some really great friends from Sydney.  He is by Rip Van Winkle and has a huge amount of upside but I have told his owners that I expect him to really hit his straps next year.

Te Akau Shark is another good horse that I bought from the Ready to Run Sale and all of my attention has now turned to the upcoming Ready to Run Sale in November.  In fact I spent all my spare time this past weekend continuing to evaluate the catalogue as I hunt out the next Group 1 winner such as Gingernuts, Hall of Fame or Flying Fulton, who was the Champion Polytrack Horse in Singapore.

If you want to be part of the next Gingernuts, Hall of Fame or Te Akau Shark then please get in touch, I would love to speak with you - or drop Karyn an email to be on our Priority List - [email protected]

I am predicting this week will be another wet one but then I think that the weather in the Waikato will start improving very quickly.  With better tracks look out for the Te Akau horses to really make an impact.  Today we finished docking all of our lambs which, with all the rain, has been a challenge in itself.  However the grass is finally starting to grow and as a farmer, daylight saving is wonderful.

Have a great week and we look forward to bringing you a trials' report tomorrow.