Te Akau Thursday Update

David writes:

Well one thing that occurred to me going around the farm this morning was that I am really pleased I don't go on holiday at this time of the year. Isn't the weather unbelievably bad? I must say that when we like to go to Hawaii for a winter break in July the weather is just so reliable there, unlike unreliable New Zealand but I guess that's what makes New Zealand such a wonderful country to grow grass and raise horses and stock.

A big focus at Te Akau Stud this week has been the chewing out of all our horse paddocks so that they come away with really fresh grass for the yearlings when they come here following the sales. We do this by putting cattle on and follow that up with 500 ewes and they chew the paddock bare. Then watch the grass growth - beautiful and fresh.  The good thing about the rain is that when the paddocks have been chewed out they come away so quickly, I have never seen so much clover in the pasture as we have had this year. We have our last unit of bulls going to the works tomorrow and then we won't need to sell anything further until January.

This morning our three track work riders Charlotte, Amalie and Sophia worked three horses each. We have three jumpers that Jason and Tommy are getting ready for Dan Miller to ride - they are getting through lots of work and we are thrilled with the way they are coming to hand. We now have 25 foals in the paddocks at Te Akau Stud and this afternoon as well as tomorrow we will be handling all of them.

Another job we are busy doing at Te Akau is topping. The grass has grown so quickly that the stock simply can't keep up with it. There is a period in early spring and summer where the grass grows six or seven times faster than in during the winter so it is almost impossible to have enough stock on to eat the grass that is grown. To keep the pasture good quality we send the topper around.

One thing I found really interesting going to the Matamata track on Tuesday morning was talking to all the other trainers.  They all seem to have the same problem and that is that there is a cough and a virus going around the stables that horses seem to pick up. They have a bit of mucous coming out of their noses and a cough for four days - they don't get a temperature but nevertheless it just holds up the horses' programme for a week and is unbelievably frustrating for the trainers!

I felt sorry for the Matamata Racing Club yesterday as it had its course proper in absolutely beautiful condition for one of its big days of the year - a time when it has a lot of Christmas parties booked in. The rain poured down, the winds were high and scratchings decimated the fields.  It is incredible in life as one's misfortune is another's gain as we had a track with a penetrometer reading of 6 and we were fortunate to be able to gallop three horses between the first and the second races and the mail I am getting is that Rockfast's work was of a very high standard. He lines up in the Group 2 Great Northern Guineas on New Year's Day. If anything the South Island trip has improved him and as I have said before, with Matt Cameron riding Volkstock‘n'Barrel we have James McDonald riding Rockfast.

We were also really thrilled with the way Listed Murdoch Newell Stakes winner Windborne worked.  Although she galloped on her own, she galloped nicely in preparation for the Group 3 Eclipse Stakes on New Year's Day at Ellerslie. This is going to be a fascinating race with some really smart two year olds but I have a feeling that Windborne is one of the best two year olds we have ever had and I am really confident that she will be hard to beat. She is one of these fillies who is easy to train, she seems bomb-proof, eats everything and just loves all the work that we are giving her.

I am off to Auckland now to have a Christmas Lunch with some mates and have given the staff plenty of direction (sure has - Ed) and will be home tomorrow afternoon.