Te Akau Sunday Update

David writes:

Our Sunday started with the alarm going off at 3.45am (like most of New Zealand for sure) when Karyn and I got up to watch the All Blacks play.  We were joined by our youngest daughter Julia-Rose and her partner Hamish. What a close and exciting game it was (not sure I'd call it exactly exciting, more like nerve-wracking!! - Ed) although clearly the All Blacks deserved to win as they scored the only two tries of the match!

After getting home by two points, Karyn was on the road to Auckland to host Weigh In and I had breakfast before heading out onto the farm.

We were really disappointed when the races were cancelled in Singapore on Friday night due to the smoke/haze coming from Malaysia.  However the good news is that Kranji will go ahead tonight so we are looking forward to watching that coverage.

What a great day Te Akau had in New Zealand on Saturday!

The day started with Sassy 'N' Smart brilliantly winning the two year old race at Riccarton - it was a superb effort after she missed the jump by some three lengths! This is a really good filly and you will hear a lot more about her in the future.  She is a daughter of Smart Missile and I am told was his first global runner and what an effort to also be his first winner.

Providing Pam (Gerard) is happy with her, she will have her first start in the Listed Welcome Stakes at Riccarton on New Zealand Cup day and then she can come home to the farm for a spell.  Jamie Richards and I purchased this filly at the Sydney Easter Sale from Arrowfield Stud for $150,000.  She is raced by a wonderful group of friends of ours and we are delighted for them that they have another good filly on their hands.

Our next win came with Opulent, a beautifully bred Keeper mare who is very closely related to Redoute's Choice. I bought this filly at Karaka for $205,000 and Karyn took a share along with quite a few of her friends and she has now won three races in a row.  She has shown she is not far away from black type and if she wins a stakes' race her value is enormous.

Xtravagant was our next winner and he won the Guineas' Trial at Trentham in what I thought was the best performance of a three year old for the season thus far.  He is going to be very hard to beat in the Group 1 NZ 2000 Guineas and the bookmakers have now moved him into joint favourite with our other smart colt Scrutinize.  I bought this full brother to the sire He's Remarkable at Karaka for $375,000.

Well done to Dan Miller who has done a top job travelling this horse and also to Kerry Jones who rides him in work every morning.  He has been a difficult horse to educate and has real ability as you saw when he won his first start by over seven lengths without even being moved on.  Same yesterday, Matt Cameron reported back to me that he was cruising so well that Matt never even had to show him the whip.

Xtravagant will travel south to Christchurch across Cook Strait tomorrow morning.  I am truly delighted for this colt's owners as they are involved in four colts from Karaka - all of which have shown some serious ability but we just haven't had the rub of the green with them this season - but their time will come.  We do have a very good Savabeel colt out of Splashing Out that this group of owners also own and he will be ready to trial in about five weeks - he is called Splurge, so look out for him.

Our next victory came with Vive La Difference who I bought for $67,500 from Taranaki breeder Dan Myers at Karaka.  This mare is raced by some of our great pals including Alan Radford who has been my fat-stock buyer since 1979, Gilbert Southworth (my accountant), Sam Boyd (who worked with me at Te Akau Stud for 31 years and is now retired), John Elstob (who is on the Board of the Waikato Racing Club with Karyn), Wayne and Sue Guppy (Mayor and Mayoress of Hutt Valley, Wayne is on the Wellington Racing Club committee), Matt Cameron's partner Blair Alexander and a number of other friends - plus Karyn!

Vive La Difference showed real class and will just keep improving with yesterday's run - she really deserved her success, having been placed second or third at her three southern starts thus far - and being so narrowly beaten.

The final of our five Saturday winners came with Risque, a Darci Brahma filly owned by The Oaks Stud.  We were delighted to see her claim the $70,000 Listed Armadillo Stakes over 1600m - this is a race that has frequently produced the winners of both the 1000 and 2000 Guineas.  She is managed by Rick Williams for Dick Karreman and I think this was the first stakes' winner that we have had for Dick and it is always a thrill to win black type races with the progeny of Darci Brahma.

This filly is a serious chance in the Group 1 NZ 1000 Guineas.  In the same race Special Memories, who finished a gallant third, spoiled her chances by pulling a bit hard but we were not in any way, shape or form disappointed with her run.  Mark my words she will be in the money in the 1000 Guineas.  She is another beautifully bred filly that I bought from Karaka - for Carol Marshall and Nessie Paykel.

All of the horses at Riccarton are in the care of Pam Gerard, Gary Ritchie and latterly Meg Cuneen and they will be joined tomorrow by Dan Miller with Xtravagant.  Providing Scrutinize goes a good race tomorrow at Te Rapa, he will fly down to Christchurch on Monday night with Kris Shailer who looks after him.

Well done to hard working young rider Michael McNab who rode all of our four Riccarton winners!  What a day too for the stallion Darci Brahma who I bought from Karaka for $1.1 million. Mark trained to win five Group 1 races, in both New Zealand and also one in Australia, earning stakes of $1.4 million and being named Champion 2YO, 3YO and Champion Sprinter/Miler as a 4YO.  Darci cleaned up producing the winners yesterday of the Group 1 Windsor Park Plate, the Listed Armadillo Stakes and the Listed Soliloquy Stakes, as well as tasting success in Australia.

Congratulations to Steve and Jamie and the whole team on their five wins - a magnificent achievement and we are all delighted.  I am also really proud that both of our stables are leading their respective Trainers' Premierships.  Mark is eight wins in front on the Singapore table with 14 meetings to run and Steve and Jamie are leading the New Zealand Premiership by four - if you think that is easy to achieve, I can tell you it is not.  It is such a reflection of a true team effort by everyone at Te Akau and the support of our amazing owners!

I am really excited about some of our good horses that we have at Kranji tonight and I think we have a great chance to win another race or hopefully two!

We have had a really busy week carrying out maintenance last week at Te Akau Stud and also selling cattle.  I sold five truck and trailer-loads of bulls and this week will sell another two, plus the first of our ox will go to be processed.  The cattle are weighing really well with the bulls averaging 352kgs and the steers will be a bit heavier. The price, although not quite matching last year, is still very sound.

Today I had lunch with George and Diane Brown and they had 40 friends and family there to celebrate Diane's 70th birthday.  George is my builder and has done all my work for 35 years.  Then this afternoon my sister Sue and her son GD Jones are coming to stay with Karyn and me.  We are having a very special afternoon and evening with Sue and GD.  In 1986, Sue's husband Geoff Broad died in an air accident on our farm and we have planted a beautiful oak tree and put a nice plaque close to where he died - we want to make sure he will always be remembered.

Tomorrow it is Labour Day races at Te Rapa - it is always am enjoyable day and the track will be great and we look forward to seeing you there.  Good luck to Scrutinize's (pictured below) owners as he contests the red-hot Group 2 James and Annie Sarten Memorial.

From now on, our attention turns to the Ready to Run Sale and we are analysing the entries and how they breezed up and we will be busy inspecting them as we want to buy at least six horses from this sale.  We have had plenty of luck from this sale in the past including Singapore Polytrack Horse of the Year Flying Fulton and last year I bought Interstellar who is one of the most promising fillies in the stable.