NZ Weekend Update

David writes:

More great rain for the farm - yes in the last five days we have had 52mls of rain here at Te Akau Stud - this is just over two inches. It has been really good, warm rain - not to heavy and it has all gone into the ground. The farm looks just amazing and we are going to go into the winter with plenty of good quality grass.

It is hard for farmers like me to sound happy sometimes - while we need the rain, that same rain plays havoc with racing but is terrific for the farm. I really enjoyed watching the races in Sydney yesterday and it was a huge result for the New Zealand breeding industry when Sacred Falls won the Group 1 Doncaster. The Doncaster Handicap (1600m) is the most prestigious mile in the southern hemisphere. The win by this son of O'Reilly was an amazing achievement for all of the connections.

You will remember Sacred Falls beat Warhorse in the Group 1 NZ 2000 Guineas and I was very impressed that the generous owners immediately donated $50,000 to the City of Christchurch Earthquake Fund and gave a further substantial amount of money to the Canterbury Jockey Club to help with its earthquake repairs.

However the huge winners on the day on Saturday had to be Waikato Stud and Mark Chittick who very astutely bought into Sacred Falls after his 2000 Guineas win. So to win the Doncaster was a $10 million result for the connections of Sacred Falls.

Aren't we lucky as an industry that Waikato Stud is standing these great stallions - as just last week the Stud confirmed that it will stand Cox Plate winner Ocean Park this coming season and of course Waikato Stud is now home to former Te Akau Group 1 winner Rock ‘n' Pop who also heads into his first season at stud.

In keeping with the New Zealand success factor of the weekend, it was great to also see Platinum Kingdom relish the heavy track conditions at Randwick to score for the Kiwis. This all follows the stunning victory last weekend by It's A Dundeel.

Tonight we have some great chances in Singapore and we have champion jockey Joao Moreria riding for us in six races on the Kranji programme, starting in Race 1 with Flag of Command who races at 4.55pm NZ time.