Te Akau Shark - the world's his oyster

The Informant reports:

Winx apart - and she sets herself apart, this wonder mare - I thought the two top performances last Saturday in a day of grand racing were on our side of the Tasman.

One was Savvy Coup's disdainfully superior victory in the Gr. 1 Livamol Classic at Hastings. And the other came in the next race on the Hawkes Bay card, when Te Akau Shark turned on a breath-taking performance in the Gr. 3 Red Badge Spring Sprint.

Te Akau Shark ran the 1400 metres in a cracking 1:22.68 on a track rated Dead4. But it wasn't so much his time that was stunning, or his three-length margin, but the ease with which he rounded up and ran away from some smart gallopers. That and the huge strides which carried him to his fourth win from five career starts.

Sometimes, short of actually taking a measurement, appearances can be deceptive when it comes to estimating a horse's length of stride. But I've no doubt at all that a measurement by tape would confirm what the eyes tell: that Te Akau Shark, a big, tall chestnut, has a huge stride when he flattens out for that big finish.

“Here came the big chestnut, devouring the ground with strides that looked almost a different gait to his rivals."

Te Akau Shark drew wide last Saturday and rider Michael Coleman allowed him to settle back. Not far ahead of him was the five-race winner Love Affair (Savabeel), a classy mare who'd had two trials to ready her for a return to the racetrack and who many thought might be too sharp for her inexperienced rival.

It briefly looked that way when Love Affair ranged up to the leaders and then drove to the front 300 metres out. But only briefly; Coleman angled Te Akau Shark into the open and here came the big chestnut, devouring the ground with strides that looked almost a different gait to the hard-working efforts of his rivals.

No wonder the vastly experienced Coleman's post-race comments included the line “the world's his oyster”.

Te Akau Stud's David Ellis paid $230,000 for Te Akau Shark at the 2016 Ready to Run Sale. It was obvious he would need time and he didn't race at two years. By the time he arrived at Hastings last weekend he had faced the starter just four times for three wins and fourth placing behind his stablemates Embellish and Age Of Fire in the New Zealand 2000 Guineas.

His most recent start had been in a Rating 82 sprint on the opening day of the Hastings carnival, when he won with an authority that was an omen, really, of what was to follow last Saturday.

Te Akau Shark comes from a family with which the Hollinsheads, of Te Awamutu, have enjoyed several generations of success. He is by Windsor Park Stud's Rip Van Winkle from Bak Da Chief, a mare who won five races including a Waikato Gold Cup in the Hollinshead colours. She was by Chief Bearhart from Havitbak, who won eight races.

The Windsor Park team will feel vindicated in their decision to buy former shuttler Rip Van Winkle so he can stay full-time in his Cambridge home. A multiple Group One winner in Europe and a son of the mighty Galileo, Rip Van Winkle seems to be popping up with a fresh decent horse at regular intervals and in Te Akau Shark he has sired one who looks more than merely decent.