Te Akau Sydney Update

David writes:

There is never a dull day in racing!  Karyn and I were getting ready to leave for the first day of The Championships on Easter Saturday yesterday at Royal Randwick when we were told the race meeting had been abandoned.

It was certainly raining, occasionally heavily, but we were very surprised to hear that the day had been called off.

The abandonment caused a flurry of comment - Gai Waterhouse saying "It's a disgrace. I can't understand it, it would never happen in Victoria, it wouldn't happen in England or anywhere else overseas.  It's so sad."

Twitter was full of comments such as "you can build a grandstand but what about getting the track right" - so it was a fairly heated and sometimes contentious day of social media and general media comment.  With so much at stake in terms of black type racing, I suppose you can expect that.

Of course everyone is affected - trainers and their horse schedules are impacted - Warwick Farm is moved to Wednesday and all those horses are affected too.  With the meeting rescheduled, jockeys are affected - for example Corey Brown arrived yesterday morning from Singapore to ride (among others) Suavito in the Group 1 Doncaster.  We had lunch with him before he had to get back on a plane to fulfil Kranji riding engagements today and then jump back on a plane tonight to be back in Sydney for tomorrow's race day.  Opie Bosson who was also with us effectively could have ridden at Te Aroha's Group 1 day but instead has had to change flights and accommodation to extend his stay until after Monday's meeting.

Imagine everything from owners' transport and accommodation, horse transport, vets, farriers, caterers, you name it - a decision like this - and surrounding a huge race day - is a serious business, at every level.

The headline in today's Sunday Telegraph said "You can make millions of dollars but that won't buy a life - $10m safety call" - referring to the fact that the washout of day one of The Championships is likely to cost the NSW racing industry $10 million in lost betting turnover.

That's life, weather and racing and the safety of jockeys and racehorses must come first and that was the primary consideration behind the postponement of the Derby-Doncaster meeting until tomorrow.  The decision to postpone was made just after 9am yesterday  when the track conditions became extremely heavy and the forecast was for further rain.  It was the first time in decades that a Group 1 race meeting in Sydney had been postponed.  This meant that there was not one race run in the metropolitan and provincial NSW area yesterday but the Telegraph reports today that it was "still a day of drama ...

- The Derby-Doncaster meeting was postponed to Royal Randwick tomorrow

- With daylight saving ending overnight, this has necessitated changes to race times with the first race tomorrow being 11.25am - and the 10 race programme will conclude at 5.00pm

- Kembla Grange was also abandoned yesterday due to its heavy track

- Warwick Farm was rescheduled from tomorrow to Wednesday

- Race morning scratchings have been re-instated meaning Moriarty and It's Somewhat are back in the Doncaster Mile field leaving Kermadec and Sweynesse (who had made the field yesterday) back as emergencies.

So while for many it was a day of many disappointments, it did mean that our lunch scheduled for Sunday at Icebergs, one of our favourite Sydney spots, was brought forward! Luckily they were able to accommodate us and it was a great catch up - Karyn and me together with James McDonald, Hugh and Christine Bowman, Corey Brown, Opie Bosson and Garry Chittick.

And as the rain continued to fall - and I must admit I thought "imagine if we were getting this rain at home how happy I would be!!"

Going back to the start of Easter - I got a huge thrill out of seeing Jimmy Rea win again in Singapore - what a find he has been for Mark Walker and of course his breeder and owner Kevin Hickman.  It was his fourth win from just six starts and he's now won about $200,000.  I just love seeing people like Kevin Hickman invest in our great industry and reap the rewards. Kevin, an astute businessman, founded Valachi Downs and has bred some top liners including Champion 2YO Vespa and Silent Achiever and of course was named last season's Champion Breeder.

Kevin has a beautiful property on the Tirau side of Matamata which is managed by Jonathan Scully - one of the best in the business.  Since Jonathan has been involved, you can see the changes that have taken place. I thought they had a stunning draft of yearlings this year at Karaka and I bought three of them - including the half brother by Zacinto to this season's Group 2 Wellington Guineas' and Group 1 winner winner Vespa.  We really like this Zacinto colt, he is currently being broken in at Te Akau Stud and doing everything right.

Today I am heading back out to the Easter Sale with Garry Chittick and our Racing Manager Jamie Richards - Jamie has been over for a few extra days and has inspected some very nice yearlings.  I have my eye on some and if I do decide to purchase them, you will be able to read about them here our website news, so keep an eye out.  Every time we have bought a horse from this sale, the shares have been snapped up.  Last year it was Unsurpassed (below) and he has already been a two year old winner for the stable.