Te Akau Thursday - New Season - Update

David writes:

Karyn and I have only one day remaining on our annual holiday and then it is all over and it's back to Te Akau and straight back into the new season!

I can see it is going to be a very busy year for all of our New Zealand team with horses racing in the next six weeks at the Hawkes Bay Carnival plus we are sending a strong team to the South Island to prepare for the Spring Carnival. We will also have horses racing in Sydney and Melbourne with a very good chance that we will have Te Akau Shark, Avantage, Probabeel, In A Twinkling and Melody Belle packing their passports and heading over.

Our first runners in Group races in New Zealand will be Te Akau Shark and Melody Belle who will contest the Group 2 US Navy Flag Foxbridge Plate at Te Rapa - the first Group 2 race of the new season in New Zealand.

Even though we have been on holiday, Karyn and I spend a lot of time as you could imagine discussing our business and talking about how we can always go the extra mile. We always aim to set a benchmark in excellence in everything we do - especially for our owners.

Overnight it looks like we have sold the very last share in our final yearling which is incredibly satisfying. Remarkably, this beautifully bred colt by Iffraaj out of the classy race mare, Group winner Rosetti Bay was the last horse to sell - called "Perfect Scenario" he is an exciting colt for sure.

This means that since the Ready to Run Sale in November we have bought, paid for and sold all the shares in 61 horses!

We have also spent quite a lot of time during our holiday securing a high class European stayer and the great news is that we succeeded! Shortly we will be posting an update on this new venture - shares in him were in hot demand. He enters quarantine in Newmarket, England on Friday and then heads to Melbourne and in to quarantine at Werribee.

All going well, he could well race in Melbourne in September and we have some lofty aims for him - he looks a real Auckland, Sydney, Caulfield, Melbourne Cup type of horse. What gave Karyn and me a special thrill was how many people were keen to be involved with this horse and shares in him were sold in two hours!

It's "Happy Birthday" today to all our horses who all officially become one year older today - our weanlings are now yearlings, our yearlings are two year olds and last season's juveniles step out now as three year olds.

In the past 12 months we have had some serious highlights - success in events like this are hard to achieve and are such a credit to our whole team - in New Zealand and Singapore:

Group 1 Singapore Gold Cup - Elite Invincible

Te Akau's third consecutive Karaka 2YO Million win - and race trifecta - Probabeel, Aotea Lad and Yourdeel

Group 1 Sistema Stakes for the second year in a row with Yourdeel

Te Akau's third consecutive Group 1 Manawatu Sires' Produce Stakes - Yourdeel

Winning FIVE Group 1 races and a Group 2 with Melody Belle

Winning the Group 2 Wakefield Challenge Stakes with debutante Aotea Lad

In total we have won over $8 million in stakes for our owners in New Zealand, Australia and Singapore.

There were just so many highlights in the past season - and today the figures all return to 'zero' and we start all over again as today is the first day of our 2019/20 season. Be sure to catch our "Te Akau Season Wrap" - a video of our highlights produced by Julia-Rose.

It's really hard to single out any one highlight but for me, Mark winning the Group 1 Singapore Gold Cup and Jamie winning the Group 2 Lisa Chittick Foxbridge Plate (Melody Belle) with his very first runner as sole trainer - and on his birthday. Not many trainers in the world would win a Group 2 with their first starter. These are two stand-outs.

To give you a further example of what a great season our Te Akau New Zealand trainer Jamie Richards and our team had - Jamie has a strike rate (5.4) that is easily the best of the country's top 20 trainers.

Winning 98 races in New Zealand (and of course a Group 3 in Australia) from only 534 starters is a great accomplishment. That means that there is a winner every 5.4 times you take a horse to the races. That is very hard to achieve.

Does the strike rate matter? Yes, it does for two main reasons:

Firstly, every time a horse goes to the races, it costs money e.g. transport, nominations, riding fees etc - so the more often a horse can win makes a big difference to the bottom line for owners.

Secondly, and just as importantly, all horses suffer from general "wear and tear" like all elite athletes - so ensuring they are strategically placed in the right company is imperative.

That is why a strike rate is important - plus it underlines that Jamie is putting the right horses in the right races.

So we were thrilled to learn this week that Jamie has been named as one of two finalists for the "Trainer of the Year" Award - which will be announced on 8 September - all the very best Jamie!

Our stable rider Opie Bosson has also been named as a finalist for "Jockey of the Year" - Opie has had a sensational season, winning Group races on both sides of the Tasman - he also broke the New Zealand record for Group 1 wins, previously held by Lance O'Sullivan. Opie's strike rate was the best of the top 60 jockeys on the premiership table - he is a very important part of our team.

We would again like to thank all of our team and our owners - without you guys none of this season success would happen.

Happy Birthday again to our horses and best of luck to all our owners for a great season ahead!

GO THE TANGERINE!

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