Te Akau Thursday Update

David writes:

Each morning I always enjoy watching the 6:00am news on TV One in my office.  I was more than a bit amused this morning when they announced that someone had written in complaining that Sam the weatherman had a smile on his face yesterday when he said it was going to be a wet Easter.

The Waikato has been desperate for this rain and yesterday it finally came - we have had 25mls overnight but the important thing is that we still need more tomorrow and on Saturday to start things moving again grass wise.

However don't the comments on the news just underline how hard it is to please everyone in life?

With the rain falling, we are flat stick sowing grass around all the gateways etc while it is still warm as it will really take off.

The rain today was actually bucketing down this morning so the drenched farm team enjoyed coming inside with Karyn and me to have hot cross buns for morning tea with us as well as the Easter eggs we had bought for them all!

I was also really bemused to read a story in the NZ Herald on the government sponsorship of the Michael Hill Golf Tournament in Queenstown recently.  The story stated that in the last couple of years the government has spent a couple of million dollars supporting this tournament.

Now I do not know the ins-and-outs and I do not know if this was a good investment or not so I am certainly not criticising that however the point I am making is that the government seems able to support rugby tournaments, golf tournaments, sailing tournaments etc.  Why can't it start putting a little bit back into the racing industry that employs tens of thousands of people and is a huge export contributor?

Having just been in Sydney for a week listening to various stakeholders it is obvious that the various governments in Australia are putting a fortune in to helping develop their great industry at both state and federal levels.  By way of example the New South Wales government gave $180 million to the Australian Jockey Club to build its new stand.

This week look at the stake money of the various races at Randwick on Saturday. For example the Queen Elizabeth is worth $4 million, The Oaks is worth $1 million.  These races just cannot take place at that level by fluke  They all have government support and I would really like to see our government show the same sort of support to racing  that other governments around the world are putting in.

We are now selling shares in the colt that we bought at the South Island Sale - I can't stop thinking about what great value this lad was - he cost just $21,000!  He is home at Te Akau Stud now and is a colt who really has a lot of class - have a look at him below and check out his pedigree on our "Yearlings and Shares" page - his sire is producing the goods and he is out of an Encosta de Lago mare and his family is one full of international black type.

As you can see this colt has good natural muscle, a great rib and hindquarters and I can see him developing into a pretty impressive type.  We will give him 10 days off before we start breaking him in.

If you would like to take a share in this colt then please call me on 07 825 4701 or email Karyn [email protected] and do come and have a look at him - we will be home over Easter working and we would love to show him to you - we look forward to hearing from you!

Remember he only cost $21,000 plus GST so a 20% share is only $4,200 plus GST or a 10% share just $2,100 plus GST and he will be Karaka Million nominated.

HAPPY EASTER EVERYONE!