Te Akau Thursday Update

David writes:

The sales continue with the second day of the Select Sale at Karaka today.  Overall I believe the sales can only be described as a huge success.

The Te Akau team of Mark Walker, Jamie Richards and myself have bought 28 yearlings so far and we are thrilled that shares are selling very quickly.

All of the horses are now back at their new home at Te Akau Stud and have settled in brilliantly at the farm.  I am going home this afternoon to inspect them all before going back to the sale tomorrow.

This weekend we will be begin to promote a colt I bought to win the Derby and a Melbourne Cup - he is Lot 252 - a Savabeel colt out of Almaviva and we paid $160,000 for him so a 10% share is $16,000 plus GST.

Savabeel of course is on fire and sold brilliantly well at Karaka - his progeny includes Group 1 VRC Derby winner Sangster, Lucia Valentina, Soriano, Costume and many more - over 33 stakes' winners already.

Our colt is the half brother to the highly talented Atacama, the winner of the Listed Matamata Cup was was second in the Group 2 Cal Isuzu Stakes in December at Te Rapa.  Impressively, in between, she appeared at Flemington on Melbourne Cup Day and claimed a Listed $165,000 race in the famous colours worn by Ethereal.

So this is a colt with huge upside and physically just the type to tackled Derbies and elite Cup - a real stayer's pedigree with stunning looks to support the breeding.

I am often asked my view of prices at the sale and reflected yesterday with some friends that the very last year of the Trentham Yearling Sales was 1987 and the first at Karaka was 1988.  The final year at Trentham saw an $800,000 filly top the sale and now 27 years later another $800,000 filly has done likewise.

So really when you think about it, prices haven't improved a lot in that time and I think the filly we bought by Fastnet Rock out of Il Quello Veloce can only be described as really good buying.  And what a darling she is too as you can see from the main pic!

Interestingly enough I know this filly's dam really well as Tell A Tale, a horse I bought for $120,000 and who Mark Walker trained, got up in the last stride to beat her in the Group 1 NZ 2000 Guineas.  You might recall Tell A Tale was ridden by Troy Harris, the Te Akau stable apprentice and Il Quello Veloce was ridden by his dad Noel.

That was the last million dollar race to be run in the South Island.  We bought Tell A Tale for $120,000 and he won three Guineas -  the Group 2 Hawkes Bay, Group 2 Avondale and Group 1 NZ 2000 Guineas and went on to run second in the $1.5 million Group 1 Singapore Gold Cup - winning a total of $1.6 million in his career.

Tell A Tale is now happily retired back in New Zealand and we gave him to his original trackwork rider Steph - she takes him to shows and he is living a really happy retirement back home.

Our attention now turns to weekend racing - we have a lovely 2YO filly called Special Memories racing tomorrow at Taranaki.  I bought this Fastnet Rock filly this time last year at the Premier Sale for $400,000.  Then in the evening NZ time, Mark Walker has four runners in Singapore on Friday night, all bar one to be ridden by champion jockey Manny Nunes which suggests they will be hard to beat.

Then we will head to racing at Te Rapa on Saturday where it is $100,000 Group 2 Darci Brahma Waikato Guineas day and we have an exicting 2YO Unsurpassed racing - I bought this Exceed and Excel colt in Sydney and he bolted in at his first start recently.

People are sometimes surprised at how easy it is to buy a share in a horse with Te Akau and anyone is very welcome to call me or Karyn at any time.  We make our owners feel very much a part of the team and very welcome.  Our number is 07 825 4701 or 021 925 151 - we can tailor a share to suit whatever you are interested in.