Te Akau Sunday Update

David writes:

It's no secret that one of my all-time favourite colts is our dual Group 1 winner Xtravagant. In fact Karyn had a painting of him done for my birthday a few years ago!

I purchased Xtravagant from Karaka and he won his first two year old race by 7.5 lengths. Then as a three year old he won the Group 1 NZ 2000 Guineas by the same margin. He also won the Group 1 Waikato Sprint by a very similar margin.

Xtravagant was sold to stud and stands at Newhaven Park in New South Wales - a very professional and successful stud farm. I have sent mares to him each year and have some stunning yearlings and foals by him at Te Akau Stud.

Last year I took Te Akau's veterinary surgeon Dr Douglas Black and NZB Chairman Joe Walls to Newhaven Park following the Gold Coast June Sale. We went to inspect all the foals by Xtravagant and we were all blown away with the quality we saw, so I thought I would go to last week's Gold Coast Sale to see them sold.

Once there, and after inspecting all the yearlings that impressed me, I decided to buy two fillies and a colt by Xtravagant.

Shares are selling at a rapid rate and altogether, about 70% of shares are already sold so do check out our website "Yearlings and Shares" page.

Altogether we purchased seven yearlings - two colts and five fillies - and they will arrive home from Australia on Tuesday night. I have paddocks all ready for them - they will simply love the climate change - gee it was hot in Australia!

Last year our horses won almost A$2 million in Australia in prize money - Group winners and performers Melody Belle, Te Akau Shark, Probabeel and Avantage. The first three all either won or ran second in Group 1 races while Avantage won a Sydney Group 3.

This year we will have horses competing in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane and our new yearlings from the Gold Coast have all been nominated for the A$10 million raceday in 12 months' time on the Gold Coast - a day that features two A$2 million races for two and three year olds.

Actually it was a Snitzel two year old that won the A$2 million Magic Millions' 2YO race yesterday - you should have a look at ours!

After a slowish start on Wednesday, the Gold Coast sale finished up a huge success. The sale returned a record gross and sale average and surpassed last year's sale as the highest grossing yearlings sale in Southern Hemisphere history - with a quarter of a million dollar average and a clearance rate of almost 88%.

This told me what great heart the industry is in that part of the world - and the best thing is we are only three hours away from racing for this amazing stake money. Plus we have a massive advantage of being able to spell these horses on beautiful grass paddocks.

Interestingly, some Australian studs told me that they are sick of the drought and the impact that is having on "growing" horses so are looking to buy land in the Waikato to rear their foals on. There are many Australian studs that haven't had any rain for three years - can you imagine that in New Zealand? It really is so sad.

We still have plenty of good quality grass at Te Akau Stud but it is starting to get dry - but hey, it is the middle of summer I know! My farm team will be busy sending cattle to the works each day this coming week and we have another lot of fat lambs ready to go.

We have 20 yearlings here at the farm that Enzo and his team are currently breaking in and they are all progressing well.

My total focus for the next three weeks is the NZB Karaka Yearling Sale. It is an exciting time of the year and Karyn and I love it.

Going back to the topic of the Magic Millions Sale - if you want to be part of the first New Zealand trained horse to win the Group 1 Golden Slipper you had better call or email us very quickly!

Have a great week and ...

GO THE TANGERINE!

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