Te Akau Thursday Update

David writes:

The best part of going away is always arriving home to the farm.  Don't get me wrong, being away and buying three stunning yearlings as well as seeing some of the best horses racing at Royal Randwick is great. However arriving home and seeing the way the farm is starting to green up is a great thrill too.  Karyn of course is pleased to see her three dogs!

I am really delighted with the three yearlings that we bought at the Sydney easter Sale on the first day.  The second day of the sale was far stronger and the two fillies and the colt we bought would have made significantly more in my view.

I just love the Smart Missile filly that is arriving home in about four days - watch out for her in the Group 2 Matamata Breeders' Stakes next year, the Group 1 Diamond Stakes and then as a three year old, the Group 1 NZ 1000 Guineas.  She is simply a stunning filly and we are now selling shares in her.

If you are keen please have a good look on our website - she is featured (along with our other two from Sydney) on our home page under “Yearlings and Shares” - click on her picture to view all her details.

We have made it easy to be involved in this filly who we have given the stable name of “Elle” (after another Australian beauty)!  One all up payment will see no more costs to you until 31 March 2016 (except insurance renewal on 31.1.16) - and stakes will of course still be paid out monthly.

A 20% share with no further costs until 31 March 2016 is $45,000 plus GST

A 10% share with no further costs until 31 March 2016 is $22,500 plus GST

A 5% share with no further costs until 31 March 2016 is $11,250 plus GST 

The Sydney Easter Sale is now a truly international event and without the teams from the likes of Dubai and Japan, this sale would have been completely different.  There were not many local trainers buying and actually I thought that in the “middle” there was some very good buying.

We are really looking forward to racing in New Zealand and Singapore this weekend - amongst our New Zealand runners is No Tricks who heads to Christchurch to contest the $50,000 Listed NZB Airfreight Stakes for three year old fillies - a turn in her luck would see this smart filly go very close.  In Singapore where Te Akau Singapore trainer Mark Walker leads the Trainers' Premiership by 10 wins, we have a large team engaged on Friday night and Sunday with some great chances as Mark looks to continue his charge.

Looking back at the sale this past week in Sydney made me realise how lucky I was to buy so many promising yearlings from Karaka (41 in total) and what great value we get there.

The Snitzel colt that I bought for example for $400,000 was in hindsight just fantastic shopping!  The buyers were paying very big prices for the progeny of Snitzel at Sydney I can tell you!

Our colt is from a family chocked full of European and American Group 1 performers and he was put in to a syndicate of three yearlings comprising him, the sales' topping Fastnet Rock/Il Quello Veloce filly and the Fastnet Rock/Myrrh colt … yearlings with outstanding pedigrees and super athletic individuals - real physical prowess.

There is only 5% now available (or two shares of 2.5%) in this syndicate - it really is a rare opportunity - so please contact us if you want to be the proud part owner of three world class types.

Today Karyn and I flew home from Sydney with Emirates and it is great having WiFi on these flights (really?? -Ed).  I have left our Racing Manager Jamie Richards in Sydney for the sale today as I hope to buy another colt for our Singapore stable.

The main difference between New Zealand and Australia at present is the economy  - so again having a strong NZ dollar has been a great buying environment for us - New Zealand is generally doing very well and Australia is not faring quite so well.