Te Akau Thursday Update

David writes:

Yesterday's Avondale racing was very exciting even if I had to watch it on tv in Queenstown!

It was thrilling to see Imperium run such a super race at his first start!  He was the talk of the track, with commentator George Simon and Trackside presenter Brendan Popplewell calling his performance the "must watch" or "black book" run of the day!

Imperium is by my favourite sire Encosta de Lago out of one of the greatest staying mares seen in my lifetime, Ethereal.  She won the Group 1 Oaks, the Group 1 BMW, Group 1 Caulfield Cup and the Group 1 Melbourne Cup.

I bought Imperium for $425,000 from the Karaka Premier Sale - if ever I have seen an exciting staying 3YO in the making, this horse looks it.

The syndicate that owns Imperium also races Rockfast who is in the Group 1 2000 Guineas and they race Sequitur, an exciting High Chaparral colt and Bordeaux.

Three races later we were back in the winner's circle with Show No Emotion, a massive mare bred and raced by Gavin and Shane Wealeans.  The big girl (as we affectionately call her) weighs 620kgs and this is the third race that she has won and there looks to be more to come.

I am just rapt for Gavin and Shane - their patience with Show No Emotion is really being rewarded.  They are terrific guys to race with and they put a lot into the industry (for example they sponsored last weekend's Listed Team Wealleans Matamata Cup).  They are also involved in Imperium too.  Gavin is off to Brisbane today to see the All Blacks play on Saturday night so I hope he takes his winning luck with him!

The Waikato in October needs rain each week and I am really happy to see rain is forecast for this weekend!  We need regular rain at this time of the year to set us up for the summer months.

I hope that the All Blacks play really well in Queensland - the Wallabies look to have caught the bug that is going around at the moment in some political quarters - disharmony and that so often affects peformance.  We are happy to see Beauden Barrett starting as he is our pick for the Number 10 jersey - having Brodie Retallick back will also be a big positive.