Te Akau Owners of the Month

Marlborough family Craig & Pip Forsyth and children Oli (13) and Hannah (7) have over these holidays embarked on the perfect sporting and recreational tour.

Prior to Oli representing Marlborough in the Hatch Cup hockey tournament, starting Oct. 7 in Hamilton, they were on hand to see Wolfwhistle (O'Reilly) contest the Hawkes Bay Guineas (Gr. 2, 1400m) and Imperial Miss (Shinko King) win the Benchmark 85 1600 metres courageously on Saturday Oct. 5 at Hastings.The picture above was taken after Imperial Miss' (aka Poppy) win - from left Craig, Karyn, Jason, Oli, Pip and Hannah - thanks www.raceimages.co.nz.

Longbeach (Fastnet Rock) debuted nicely on Oct. 9 at Taupo, and also on the itinerary is a visit to the Te Akau stables at Matamata.  

“We're in the middle of nowhere, really, so it will be nice to get up and have look around,” said Craig Forsyth, “as long as the weather behaves”.

“The kids want to get out to the stables. They know plenty about it all and very rarely get a chance to get there, so they'll be excited. Oli was a fan of Titan Prince and currently Wolfwhistle and Hannah liked Te Akau Rose and now Wolfwhistle,” said Forsyth.

“Pip was a vet nurse and we have plenty of animals at home in Blenheim. Because of old age we recently had to put down the family lab, Norm, but we have a young lab, Nellie, a small flock of sheep and Oli breeds a few lambs. We also have three cats - John, JJ and Sooty.

One of eight children off the family farm at Ward, about forty minutes from Blenheim, Craig was a border at St Bede's College in Christchurch. With a strong interest in rugby, he represented the First XV at first five-eight before taking up a position with chartered accountants Winstanley Kerridge in Blenheim, where he has been a director since 2002. Craig's website “winkerr.co.nz” gives an overview of the firm and includes “hot topics” articles. There is a complimentary newsletter available from Craig - [email protected] (and there is a fabulous blog section being launched soon).

“I played ninety-seven games for Marlborough over seven or eight years,” said Forsyth. “We had many highlights, with one being a challenge for the Ranfurly Shield against Auckland. I played against Grant Fox and their team also had Zinzan Brooke and the Whetton brothers. And although we lost by 50-0, dare I say it, but it was a pretty good result on the day. Another highlight was making the final of the third division, played at home in front of 6000 fans (that's a huge crowd for Blenheim) after we had been unbeaten, only to have Wanganui come down and beat us, right on the hooter. Then, the following year we beat North Otago in the final to win the third division.”

Although his father raced a couple of gallopers with the local vet in Blenheim, it was the odd excursion with schoolmates to the races that sparked an interest for Forsyth.

“Quite often while at boarding school we made trips to the races, predominantly Addington as we didn't go to Riccarton a lot. Mainly in the sixth and seventh form and we would go at the weekends.

“Since leaving college, Pip and I have regularly attended Cup Day at Riccarton and we still do. We have a boot party with friends and family. Last year, we had Imperial Miss in the last race and they cancelled it after lightning hit. It was real shame but she won a couple of weeks later so she might have been right for the day. We love thoroughbreds and love attending races for the friends you meet from all facets of life.

“I first saw a Te Akau advert in the Sunday paper in 2005 for Titan Prince (Volksraad). I thought, ‘that's for me', rang up and took a ten percent share. It was a good start; he won his first four races as a three-year-old.

“We have had small shares in quite a few horses. Up to twenty percent to spread the risk a bit. We've had Te Akau Rose (Thorn Park), who won the Matamata Breeders' Stakes (Gr. 2, 1200m) and was then sold for good money. Polar Esprit (Bel Esprit) was our first horse to Singapore, after he won in Dunedin. He won two over there pretty quickly, the first by quite a few lengths and unfortunately he broke down - the highs and lows of racing. Clermont Club (Casino Prince) has just gone to Singapore, Sunset Pass (Yamanin Vital), who finished third and looked pretty comfortable jumping last Sunday, and we have bought into the colts: Wolfwhistle (O'Reilly) and Longbeach (Fastnet Rock). The year we are in the two-year-old colt Realize (Redoute's Choice) and the filly Light Source (Iffraaj). Fingers crossed there are some shining lights there.

“Te Akau Rose (pictured below) has been our most successful horse to date and I'll never forget when we visited the farm (Te Akau Stud) for the first time and after the grand tour left with a $40k cheque - very nice.

“As an owner, we sit here and all we want to see is our horses run. While we haven't got a great background on it, Te Akau educates the owners in saying that giving a horse time is not a bad thing, and until you've been in game a while you learn that not many that race early can kick on, do they? Some of three-year-olds stepping out now, there is plenty of potential there.

“It's probably been said one-hundred times before but the communication provided by Te Akau is the key for me. There's no doubt about it, they're best in the business by a long way. Regular communication, so that you know what's going on, whether it is good, bad, or ugly. I love the Te Akau website and get the odd good tip if you follow it closely enough.

“We had more to do with Mark (Walker) early on and he proved he's one of the best in the business. While it is early days for Jason (Bridgman), he too is already a Group 1 trainer and all indications are that he will prove to be very successful. He has the horse flesh to do it and you've got to give credit to David (Ellis) there. He has certainly bought well in the three-year-olds that are running around this year.

“David (Ellis) is very approachable and there is an ease in which you can ring him and have a chat, while Karyn (Fenton-Ellis) is worth her weight in gold and runs a great ship. They are successful and success breeds success, generally. We hope that being involved with Te Akau will take some risks out of the equation and we all know there are plenty of risks in racing horses. Being with the best gives us the best chance, is my sort of thought. I am very loyal to them (Te Akau) and one day we might crack the good one, that's what we're all in it for.

“My preference going forward is the colts. The royally-bred where a little slice can turn into a pretty good reward if it all falls into place, so generally speaking quality over quantity is how we will approach it going forward.

“[Te Akau] Singapore has been a very positive move. The stakes are fantastic and unless the horses are top class and David (Ellis) thinks they have group ability to stay here then I think the more the merrier in Singapore. Owners get rebates and you're in the money before you start. It's just nice to have Singapore as an option.”

Oli and Hannah

Story credit - Jeff Dore

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