Te Akau Thursday Update

David writes:

A bit late in catching up with you today as it is almost midnight and Karyn and I have just returned from a day at Matamata.

Thursday started with a busy morning at the farm and then we left to firstly visit Windsor Park Stud and meet their stallions thanks to Rodney and Gina Schick and Steve Till.  After viewing Thewayyouare, Guillotine, Shamexpress and Rip Van Winkle - who all looked in brilliant order - we then had lunch with the team at the local Lily Pad Cafe.

We then headed to the stable and inspected all the horses with Jason and Jamie, together with Pam and Tommy and Steve who were busy looking after them all with our other staff.  Joined by Jeff, it was great to have a good team chat and catch up and talk through everything from yesterday's very promising Taupo results to future programmes.

Then it was a really special evening with our vet Doug Black at Workman's Cafe in Matamata (yes Syd was in the kitchen) where Karyn and I were joined by Jason and Stacey, Pam and Tommy, Steve, Jamie and Jeff.  A really lovely evening had by all.

A number of our young horses had their first jump outs today but more on that tomorrow - it's midnight and an early 5am start is on the agenda.

Pictured from left - 2c Fastnet Rock/Morgalicious, Esprit de Corps (Bel Esprit/Vercors) and Windborne (Darci Brahma/Sweet Dreams Baby - a full sister to Darci's Dream who won so impressively at Taupo yesterday) - picture credit Stacey Bridgman.