Te Akau Thursday Update

Well my favourite ever sporting hero Mack Herewini (pictured) died overnight in Auckland - Mack was an All Black first five eight and what I remember most about him was his unbelievable ability to drop kick a goal in the last minute of a game and turn the result in his team's favour.

Mack played for Otahuhu in Auckland and I used to attend club games at Eden Park in those days with my father - another great All Black Otahuhu produced of course was Waka Nathan.  Mack was a hero for Auckland during the period when they had the Ranfurly Shield for many years and I remember him when I was a child that he always amazed me with his unbelievable balance and talent.  Just a natural, world class payer - a great player who I idolised in those days.

Today we have six friends of mark and mine coming to inspect the yearlings that we are breaking in and then we are going to have a nice relaxing lunch and probably finish at 8pm tonight (ha that is why we can't name them - Ed)!

It is a truly beautiful day at Te Akau and we are so lucky that after a very difficult summer, we have not yet had a frost as we head towards the end of May.  This morning I had a tree expert out to the farm and we are going to plant 25 special trees every year for the next 10 years around the stud so we were planning all of those plantings.

This week we have four yearlings that have completed their breaking in going to the stable and next week we will have five heading into Jason - the breaking in will all be completed by the middle of June but that of course doesn't take into account the yearlings that I buy at the Gold Coast.

Last Monday we started breaking in some particularly nice yearlings - horses that have really changed since the yearling sales - the O'Reilly/Grand Echezeaux is an example of what I mean.

At the sale I could see that he was going to develop into a particularly nice, well balanced colt but the sale had arrived just a touch too early for him.  He was a little open in the knee and not so balanced but I could see his potential for sure.  Now you would not recognise him - he has developed beautifully.

I bought him because I could visualise what he would look like in six months' time and I am really thrilled that in this instance I have been right and he is growing into a gorgeous type!  Who knows - this half brother to Darci Brahma, Burgundy and Saperavi, who is out of the Group 1 winning Zabeel mare Grand Echezeaux, could well be her best offspring yet - maybe she has not yet left her best horse and this O'Reilly colt could well be the one - who knows.

Another colt we started breaking in is the Zabeel/Miss Zapper lad who has also done very well since the sale.  As we know with Zabeels - time is usually their best friend! He is one of two colts in my Melbourne Cup Syndicate for 2014 - the other being our Pentire/Zambezi colt.  Zambezi is a Zabeel mare that we trained a few years ago - she had huge ability but had to be retired early due to injury but I have no doubt she could have won a big Cup.  This colt will head to the stable this week for further early education and he has really impressed everyone who has ridden him.

With the Gold Coast sale coming up, each night I am doing pedigree research on the yearling sale and my short list of horses is coming together well - horses that I think can return to New Zealand, be educated and trained by Te Akau and then go on to win Group races here and in Australia.

Mark Walker and I leave for the Gold Coast on Tuesday - we also have Costa Viva racing at Eagle Farm on Saturday 31 May in the A$350,000 Group 2 Queensland Guineas and we are really looking forward to better luck for our reigning NZB Filly of the Year.

Pam Gerard, our Assistant Trainer, is with "Viva" and Precious Time in Queensland and is doing a fabulous job with them.  Her partner Tommy Hazlett and their two children Archie and Meg have headed across to spend time with her this week.  Pam reports that the horses are really thriving.