Te Akau Thursday Update

David writes:

One of the most frequently asked questions I get posed is what is my view on the reports we constantly read in the paper on El Nino.  These reports have had a big bearing on the confidence that farmers have particularly in the Gisborne and Hawkes Bay areas.  My opinion is that there is a chance they are right and there is a chance that they are wrong.  Sometimes they cannot even predict what the forecast is going to be tomorrow accurately.  Night after night I listen to the weather forecast and just about every day this week they have forecast showers and yet we have one of the most beautiful afternoons today that we have had all year.  I am just staggered how inconsistent and frequently wrong the New Zealand weather forecasters are.

This morning we drafted more fat lambs for the works and weaned all the lambs, drenched them, vaccinated them and drafted them into ewe lambs and weather lambs.  We then drafted the weather hoggets into size and then this afternoon we are weighing and ear marking bulls that we bought yesterday.  The store price for bulls has been very good buying and yesterday we bought yearling bulls for under $2.60 a kg at Frankton which to my mind is remarkable.

I have just come in from the farm to watch the second race at New Plymouth and it is just remarkable the success that Steve and Jamie and all the team are having.  Red Poppy, a filly that I bought for just $45,000 from Karaka from the draft of Phoenix Park won her first start really impressively.

She is an Iffraaj filly and iffraaj as a sire is really doing the job at the moment - think of trans-tasman Group 1 winner Turn Me Loose, Serena Miss, NZB Filly of the Year Fix and many others.

Currently we have just started to sell shares in a very smart and beautifull confirmed Iffraaj gelding that I bought from the Ready to Run sale - lovely and strong, he looks like he won't be far from racing.  At $42,500 he was BARGAIN BUY and we only have 45% available in him - so be quick and email [email protected] now.

STOP PRESS - THIS GELDING'S HALF SISTER 'RUNWAY' JUST WON HER THIRD RACE TODAY AT TARANAKI!

So today we have seen the debutante Red Poppy win easily and yesterday it was the turn of another first starter, the Flying Spur filly Vinevale who Brent and Cherry Taylor bred and decided that they wanted Te Akau Racing to train her.  It is always exciting when you get a filly from Trelawney to train because it is one of the best farms in New Zealand. Its record of breeding good horses is second to none and we won another race for the team just last week with a very talented Pins mare called Smashing (out of Ruud Van Slaats).  Both of these horses will go close to winning black type races this season which is what all breeders aspire to.

We have plenty of grass on the farm and I have never seen stock do so well.  Our yearling cattle that we have just bought are putting on over 1.5kgs per day while the two year olds are putting on 2 kgs plus per day.

Tomorrow Karyn and I are going to Auckland to celebrate Julia-Rose's birthday and we are taking some of her friends out to Soul Bar for dinner.  Then the Ellerslie races are on Saturday.  I am spending every spare minute of the day reading the sales' catalogues for the January sales, doing my pedigree research, analysing the pedigrees, making up my mind which crosses will be successful.  Next week Joe Walls and I will start inspecting the yearlings and that is always a demanding but exciting time.

The following Tuesday Mark Walker arrives home and is staying at Te Akau for a week and then he is going down to Nelson to stay with his brother for a few days before coming back to Te Akau Stud for Christmas Day.

We are  having a lot of mares and foals come home this week from the studs.  We have had a terrific run this year getting our mares in foal and we have some stunning foals this year by Darci Brahma, Rock'n'Pop, Burgundy, O'Reilly, Savabeel and Rip Van Winkle.

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