Te Akau Sunday Update

David writes:

On Sunday morning we started the day with a breakfast meeting at the hotel with Jason and Mark and we discussed various horses in both of our stables.

It was a tough morning before heading out to the Karaka sales' complex as I was on the phone to Karyn as she had to put our much loved dog Karaka to sleep at the farm.  Karyn was supposed to appear on a national tv news programme promoting women in racing but cancelled that so she could be with our dog in his final hours.

I spent the day looking at yearlings again at Karaka and then it was back to the hotel to prepare for the races at Ellerslie - Karaka Million night.  We had horses in two races and we won them both!

We won the first race with a 3YO filly by More Than Ready out of Insouciant who we trained to be NZ Bloodstock Filly of the Year and this is her first foal.  Her name is Equanimity and she has had two starts for two wins for Sir Peter and it was a great thrill for him to win on New Zealand Bloodstock's big night at Ellerslie, and the race that his Pencarrow Stud sponsored.

Two races later, Te Akau was in the winner's circle again when Spellbinder, an O'Reilly filly that I bought for $60,000, cruised home in the Listed $100,000 Karaka Mile.  This was the second time in three years that we have won this prestigious race, last time it was with Rock 'n' Pop.

Spellbinder is a filly with enormous class and remains unbeaten at Ellerslie in three starts - we will certainly be looking at the Sir Tristram Fillies' Classic at Te Rapa and the Derby with her in the next six weeks.

We then left Ellerslie and travelled back to the hotel to finalise our list of yearlings that we intend to buy tomorrow.  We have done an enormous amount of homework again this year and we have seen some really outstanding young horses that we intend to buy.

Te Akau would love to have you involved in a yearling with us this year - so if you are watching the tv and would like to have a share in a horse that we have just purchased, please fell free to call me on 021 925 151 and you will be made to feel very welcome.

Spellbinder's win today at Ellerslie was Jason's 52nd win for the season - and she was beautifully ridden by Matt Cameron.

To top off proceedings (after Rapid Gain won on Friday) Mark won the first race in Singapore with a horse called Lightning Mac proving what a truly successful international stable we have.