Te Akau Owners of the Month

The spotlight again falls on our very special team of owners who are such an important part of the Te Akau family - a wonderful couple - Janet and Garry Harris from the Kapiti Coast .....

We have very different backgrounds, Janet in London and Garry in Marton.

Janet spent lots of time freezing at the English seaside and without a lot of hand-eye coordination she wasn't a particularly sporty child. Garry played rugby at school and did a lot of athletics. Later on played squash and now into road cycling. When living in the UK always got over to France, knows most of the cols very well and looks forward to July each year for the Tour de France; the cycling and the history all together.

We met through mutual friends when we were both running the Seville Marathon. We've also both run several London marathons as well as New York and Paris. Garry is a lot faster than Janet but she gets there in the end.

We feel a special affinity, definitely, when tramping in Fiordland. It provides remoteness and the opportunity to escape from our normal daily routine.

We enjoyed visiting Tibet. When we moved to NZ from the UK we travelled through India, Nepal, Tibet and China. The whole trip was amazing but Tibet was definitely the highlight. We were there in winter and there weren't many tourists but there were a lot of pilgrims from the countryside visiting Lhasa. It was an incredible experience.

Janet doesn't remember not watching the races, while Garry remembers in the mid 80's when Serestrina ran 2nd in 1987 1000 Guineas, then ran in the NZ Derby which was on Boxing Day, then the Oaks, went to Australia to run in Cups. And in Marton, often playing squash with local jockeys on Friday nights when they were sweating out the last kilos before race day.

In the UK, going to Liverpool for the Grand National at Aintree, we saw Seagram win in 1991 and Lord Gyllene in 1997. Garry reckons the greatest race was the 1986 Cox Plate - Bonecrusher / Our Waverley Star and best horse Frankel, whom the pair visited in 2013 at Banstead Manor Stud.

When we moved here in 2008 we had a look around and Te Akau had the most interesting options for us at the time. There are opportunities to suit all budgets and there is plenty of diversity in the horses that are offered for syndication.

Our favourites are still our two original Te Akau horses, Daisy (Sans Souci - main picture with Garry left and Janet right) and Spencer (Gunsmoke). We're now breeding from Daisy and Spencer is a steward's horse in the South Island. They both won their first starts. Caspar (Rock ‘n' Pop) is obviously very special to us as well. We only missed two of his starts and were there for all of his wins. We kept a breeding share in him and are looking forward to his first foals, including ours, arriving later this year.

We've had some fantastic days at the races with the horses, especially when Rock ‘n' Pop won the 2000 Guineas and we've made some great friends. All wins are special though. We had great days at Te Aroha with Daisy and at Wanganui with Spencer.

We enjoy visiting the stables and farm and we are encouraged to see the horses. It requires some planning, and the email updates are very good.

We love how friendly the racing clubs are, especially the smaller ones. We always have a good time at the races. We get to as many races as possible to see the horses run and have been to some great race meetings. Recently it has been Hastings, Awapuni, Wanganui, Te Rapa and Tauranga. It's always good to catch up with old and new friends over a beverage, always a story to share.

We do think, though, that New Zealand has too many racecourses with poor facilities. Consolidating and improving the courses would improve the industry. Plus, increasing the prize money, it's very hard to break even racing a horse here, never mind make a profit. We definitely do it for love not the money.

We live in Waikanae with our two cats, Henry and Susie. Garry is an accountant and Janet works for Land Information New Zealand.

Janet reads anything and everything, Garry prefers facts. We get the train to work in Wellington which is excellent reading time.

Being English, Janet likes anywhere that does a good curry and Garry likes the London Ebury Street Wine Bar and the Paris Bistro near the Place de Concorde, bottom of the Champs de Elysees.