Te Akau Owner of the Month

This month we shine the spotlight on a friend and owner, and business associate all in one - Alan Radford of Hamilton who with his wife Glenys has a share in recent winner Vive La Difference -

I'm just a shepherd from Taihape that has a love of horses. I was riding horses before I went to school, and then rode to school. We used to ride five or six miles, when I was five, to catch the school bus and leave my horse in a paddock at the end of the road. I was more interested in riding horses and chasing cattle than I was of school.

I was into athletics in a big way as a runner and show jumped horses and I still hunt a lot. I'm currently the chairman of the Maramarua Hunt, and hunt with them, Pakuranga, and all over the country. My wife Glenys and I hunt up north a lot. We have friends visit and hunt with us and we stay with friends while hunting throughout New Zealand. I ran on the track and did quite a few half marathons. When I first met David (Ellis), and lived in Huntly - true story: I actually ran from Huntly out to the Waimai Valley to David's first farm to buy lambs one Sunday. I don't think he could believe it when I came trotting up the drive with running shorts on. It was about three hours on the road but I was pretty fit.

My father worked in the stock and station industry and I do too. I went to work for other farmers before realizing there wasn't a lot of money to be made earning 4£10s, so I got into the stock and station industry forty-five years ago in the Waikato. I buy livestock for processing and farming, like I've done for David for the past thirty-five years.

In that time, the change that David has made to create Te Akau Stud from the farms he's bought is phenomenal. There is never a weed or thistle on the place and ever since he started he has been a great one for putting manure on. He's fanatical about keeping the place clean and tidy. I've bought a hell of lot of stock for David and a hell of a lot from him and he's a large player in the district with beef and lamb. You can go to the farm now and see beautiful mobs of cattle that are just phenomenal; his bulls and his steers. He's a hard task master; I buy all his cattle for him and I know what he likes. He likes the best and only wants the best. He is a very good grower of grass, knows how to manage grass, knows how to eat it at the right time, and never wastes a blade of it.

David keeps a stringent eye on everything that's happening and he's obviously very good with his staff because they stay with him a long time. He's a very good farmer and keeps a watchful eye on all matters. In the greater Waikato, his steers and bulls and lambs would be second to none. He produces a top article of everything and of course he uses the cattle to prepare amazing feed for the horses, so that when the yearlings come from the sales, or the mares and spellers come home, if there is anywhere in the country where horses get put in a better or safer paddock I'd be surprised. He spends a lot of time using his cattle to prepare top quality pasture for the horses.

He never does anything half-pie, David. If he puts a fence up, it's a real fence. He doesn't do three wire, four wire, electrics, it's instead seven wires, two barbs and an outrigger - and there's miles of it. He's a perfectionist. He's such a perfectionist he drives me nuts some times. He's a hard but fair task master. I do an immense amount of business with him and we've developed an amazing business relationship over the years. He's very trusting. I spend a lot of Te Akau Stud's money and he doesn't stand over me, so he's very trusting of the people that he works with.

Years ago, I raced a steeplechaser which I taught to jump and hunted and competed in point to points. I was earning about $25 dollars a week and seemed to spend more than that on the horse. It was called You Beaut and I bought him off Graham Pepper. He was a sprinter that I could get to run two-mile and he could jump like a bird. I won plenty of point of points but could never get him to win a race.

I've got a share in Vive La Difference (Choisir - pictured) and it was a thrill to see her win recently at Te Rapa. Luckily, I went that day. I was going to a sale to buy some cattle for David and just popped in to have a look and she absolutely flew home. It was a good effort next time at Hastings. It was her first trip away and having been involved in horses all my life I know with travelling horses that it can take them a trip or two to eat and drink properly and all things being equal I thought she went a good race. There was nothing pulling away from her at the finish and it appears she's looking for more ground.

David introduced me into a racing syndicate and my relationship with Te Akau Stud has got me interested. It's a way to have a really nice interest and meet a lot of people, and be involved in a good horse that I couldn't afford to buy outright. A lot of people can't and that's why syndicates allow people to have a good interest in racing. You don't have to stump up $100,000, or $500,000, all at once. David is incredibly professional with his syndicates and because of my long involvement with Te Akau I've also got to know and deal with Mark (Walker) and Jason (Bridgman). They are both very professional those boys, they keep you in the loop and extremely well informed and all owners know exactly what is going on and get an honest appraisal of their horse and what it's doing.

I've been a member forever at Te Rapa; like staying races and jumping races although I know jumps races aren't popular with some clubs because they don't get a lot of on course turnover. It's good fun catching up with people at the races and always a good day out. The most valuable improvement I can see is to get some more money into racing, but I'm buggered if I know how they do that. It would be nice if there was never a stake under $10,000.

I don't know if Joe public realize how many people are gainfully employed in racing in this country and that they all pay tax. Somehow the industry needs more money, whether it's coming from the IRD (tax paid) or whether there is more incentive to buy and the ability to write-down horses, I'm not sure, but there has to be some money put into it. And if it wasn't for syndication there probably would be no racing, would there?

I've had a lot of good horses - show jumpers and hunters, but I've got a little dog called Elle Macpherson (now 14yo) - she's a rough coated Jack Russell that I've had since she was a puppy. She goes everywhere with me and I called her Elle Macpherson because she's got the most beautiful little legs. She's been my number one cattle dog, sheep dog, wild cat killer, possum killer and rat killer, but she's got pretty slow now.

Political history is what I really love to read.

I'm not much of a restaurant goer, but anywhere that has a really good red wine selection suits me.