Te Akau Thursday Update

David writes:

As I have said before, even though we are on holiday we still keep our mind on the job.

Over the last three weeks I have been busy buying cattle and we are now so fully stocked up that we haven't got one spare paddock.  The export price for beef is at record levels and last week saw the biggest rise ever in the history of beef sales in New Zealand.  Bull beef is now selling for US$2.62 per pound up from $2.39 the previous week.  Beef this Spring will be worth gold!

In the past month we have sent another eight horses up to Mark Walker to train at our Te Akau Singapore stable.  It is no wonder so many of our owners like racing in Singapore where a maiden race is worth $75,000.  The other advantage is that training costs are very good value in Singapore in relation to the stake money on offer.

We did an exercise recently looking at the average cost of having a horse trained in Singapore compared to New Zealand.  Taking into account the starters' incentive of $900 if your horse is not first or last, the training fees are very similar and over a year it costs about $24,000 to have a horse in work in Singapore (on average) and around $32,000 in New Zealand.

The reason for this is, that in general terms the additional costs in Singapore are less, in particular there are no transport costs to raceday and trial venues and the Singapore Turf Club ensures that veterinary costs are heavily subsidised.  And as I say a maiden race in Singapore is worth $75,000 while in New Zealand it is $7000 -$8000.  So it makes a lot of sense to race there.

We are all busy gearing up for a huge day at the Te Teko trials on 5 August where Te Akau will have over 30 horses ready for their first quiet trial of the new season.  We will be all hands on deck and are really looking forward to the new season with much anticipation.