David writes:

What a great few days Te Akau owners have had, winning eight races in four days from Counties, to Riccarton, and Matamata to Otaki.  We saw some huge performances from all eight winners, and some truly gutsy ones from many of our place-getters too.

I include in that Amarelinha and Brando who went top races to place second and third in the Otaki Group 1, I Choose You running third in the Group 2 Matamata Breeders' Stakes, and Kahma Lass who was a brave third in the Group 3 Mannerism Stakes in Melbourne, so more valuable black type for her.

The weekend's success saw our New Zealand win tally climb to 97 (+ five in Australia) - with 22 Group/Listed wins in NZ (+5 in Australia).

Importantly, our owners have now won $6,783,188 across New Zealand and Australia this season - add in our Singapore stable and the prize money earned for our owners surpasses $7 million - all this in only seven months of the season.

Well done to Jamie, Mark, Donna and all our team members who look after our horses with so much love and attention.  You all, at the stables and the stud, make such a difference and the results we achieve are certainly in a large part due to your passion and hard work.

Nicole Shailer is one of our senior team members, she is foreperson of our "Middle Barn" of 20 boxes.  Her barn had three starters in the Group 2 Matamata Breeders' Stakes on Saturday and I asked her which one she thought was her 'best chance' - she was adamant that Maven Belle would have the upper hand.  Nicole's also a very good judge!  The team at that barn has looked after some stunning horses including our 'millionairesses' - the likes of Probabeel, Melody Belle and Avantage.

Speaking of Maven Belle, I think that was Te Akau's 7th win in the Group 2 Matamata Breeders' Stakes.  It's a race that is fiercely contested particularly by the local trainers as it is the most prestigious event (Group wise) the Club runs at the track.  After the race, the winner's colours are painted on the jockey statue in the birdcage and they remain there for 12 months so every trainer prefers to see their own every morning!

Our 'home-grown' Burgundy girls have also been flying their late sire's flag - what a sad loss he has been to this industry.  Belle En Rouge and Maven Belle have both won at Group 2 and Group 3 level, while on Saturday we saw another of his daughters, Burgundy Rose, deliver her 7th career win!  These three are all homebred fillies that we syndicated amongst our owners - so we are dead chuffed to see the success they are enjoying.

Above top to bottom: Maven Belle, Belle En Rouge & Burgundy Rose

Some other highlights of the last few days included my wife Karyn winning a race with a filly she bred, A Little Bit Bossy.  There's quite a story around the name of this filly - Karyn likes to remind the family that the filly is named after our granddaughter Lucia-Rose, not Karyn!

We also felt really proud winning the Lisa Chittick Plate with Imperatriz, who bolted in by five lengths.  This was a $20,000 Pearl Series Bonus race too.  Imperatriz is a beautiful, almost-black I Am Invincible filly that I purchased from the Magic Millions' sale.  She has already won a Group 2 and two Group 3 races, as well as being Group 1 and Group 3 (x2) placed too - so she is a valuable filly indeed.

Lisa Chittick was a very special woman to Karyn and me and the whole Te Akau family - a bright star in the industry whose genuine heart, drive, passion, glamour, humour and friendship stays with us always.  We always remember her with huge love and respect.

As Maven Belle's career kicks off, we said farewell to Exaltation on Saturday.  The half-sister to Melody Belle retired from racing by fittingly winning her final appearance on Saturday. In foal to Savabeel, she has a bright broodmare future ahead of her.  The winner of five races, she actually won on debut - bookend victories.

Congratulations to all of our owners who are enjoying an unbelievable run of success again this season.  To you all, thank you for your support which we greatly appreciate.

Mark Walker has now been home for a couple of weeks and for me it is no surprise just how quickly he has fitted right back in to the stable in Matamata.  Mark is very excited about the team he has to train for the latter part of this season, and the upcoming season ahead.

Saturday brought back lots of memories too - it was two years ago at Royal Randwick when Te Akau Shark won the Group 1 Chipping Norton beating Verry Elleegant and Fierce Impact.  It was a massive day as within half an hour, we also had our reigning Horse of the Year Probabeel claim Group 1 victory in the Surround Stakes, downing her frequent combatant Fun Star.  We also won a stakes' race at Ellerslie that day with tar of Bombay.

Probabeel has arrived safely home to her adoring owners Brendan and Jo Lindsay today and she will have the most wonderful life ahead you could dream of, they truly adore her.

From Tuesday onwards, I will be based in Auckland for two weeks and I am really looking forward to the sales getting underway on next Monday.  I can tell you amongst other yearlings, we will be hunting down our 7th Karaka 2YO Million winner.

If you have always thought about racing a share in a horse, now is a great time to get involved with Te Akau Racing - simply ring me on 021 925 151 or email Karyn on [email protected] and you will be made to feel very welcome.  If you haven't been involved with Te Akau before, we have all the information you need at our fingertips to send to you and you will see how easy and affordable it is.

The great thing - and we feel so proud of this - is we have the best owners you could wish for!  Our owners are like family to us, and we also just love getting to know new owners as well.

Today we start putting on our fertiliser at Te Akau Stud - we are applying 1100 tons of lime, 500 with a plane and 600 with trucks.  We are also putting on 500 tons of super phosphate with some potash mixed in.  We would love some rain but it doesn't look like much is coming in the next 10 days unfortunately.

We are all very much looking forward to Derby Day on Saturday at Ellerslie and then Auckland Cup Day on Sunday 13 March - this day also sees the Group 1 Bonecrusher and Sistema Stakes on that day and Te Akau will have runners in both these races.

Don't forget if you want to be involved in a share in a promising young horse, we buy across all budgets, not just expensive horses that you may read about in sales' reports!

For example On The Bubbles who won last year's Karaka 2YO Million and Group 1 Manawatu Sires Stakes was only $90,000.  Fellini, who was third in this year's Karaka 2YO Million, has won twice and placed twice in four starts.  He cost $40,000 and in those four starts has earned $106,225 for his happy owners.

So give us a call, drop us an email, and keep your eye on our website during the sale - the sale will also be broadcast and Te Akau is again supporting this coverage.  We will provide those details directly to our owners later this week.

Have a great week ahead and ...

GO THE TANGERINE!!