Te Akau Thursday Update

David writes:

After some good rain last weekend and some very good grass growth, we had the first frost of the year this morning.

It has been a very challenging year farming since about 15 January.

But the good news is that the fertiliser is all on and we are starting to grow some good grass. Horses just love this fine weather and it's a great time for our horses to spell and the team in the stable can also take some welcomed time off.

The opposite is the case though at Te Akau Stud - we have never ever been so busy! This morning the team rode 22 horses that are being broken in and educated and we are hard feeding about 160 horses twice daily so my team here at the farm is under the pump - and just working brilliantly, I am so proud of them all. We are lucky that we have such a terrific team here, the best ever. All of our spelling horses are fed Dunstan feed and Dunstan director David Smith is lucky to be a shareholder too in Champion filly Avantage.

Today we started shearing at Te Akau Stud as well. We have 2500 breeding ewes and 750 ewe hoggets to shear. We have a six-stand woolshed so it doesn't take too long.

On Monday we purchased three top class yearlings at the NZB South Island Sale - the shares are selling faster than ever with both fillies already sold out. So have a look at their photos and profiles on our "Yearlings & Shares" page is you want to be involved - you will need to act quickly and call me urgently on 021 925 151 or email [email protected]

There are only THREE SHARES REMAINING in our Zacinto colt (main photo and below) - he was outstanding buying - by the same sire as Group 1 NZ 2000 Guineas' winner Ugo Foscolo - one of the stand-outs of the sale for sure.

A 10% share is only $5,200 +GST!!

You wouldn't believe it but about 24 years ago I bought a cheap filly on the Gold Coast for A$11,000. Nobody wanted a share with a number of people telling me that there must be something wrong with her because she cost so little.

Well, her name was Integrate and she won Group races on both sides of the Tasman - with prize money earnings of just on $700,000. She raced 53 times for 12 wins and was only out of the money on nine occasions - in fact in her 13 second placings, SEVEN of those runner-up placings were in Group 1 events on both sides of the Tasman - she was some horse! Then she was sold to Japan as a broodmare for serious money.

It was a great day at Te Rapa on Saturday for the Cambridge Jockey Club's big meeting and there was some top racing enjoyed by all. Karyn and I are back at Te Rapa this Saturday for the Waikato Racing Club's meeting.

Karyn is the Chairman of the Club and we are getting in behind Luke Kemeys and the Boys Get Paid team, sponsoring their BGP event for the day - it will be a lot of fun I am picking with about 100 in attendance.

Te Akau will have two runners in the feature event for two year olds, a stakes' race sponsored by Waikato Equine Services who do all our veterinary work.

I was thinking again on Sunday how disappointing it is that New Zealand Thoroughbred Racing (NZTR) doesn't seem to have any influence in keeping "Weigh In' - Trackside's thoroughbred racing review programme - on our screens each weekend after it closes down for the season in April. The Box Seat for harness and Dog Zone for greyhounds seem to continue but NOT Weigh In.

After the great racing we had at Te Rapa last weekend, including a winners' dead heat in a stakes race, just more and more missed opportunities to showcase our code. It is just so tragic how this industry is being operated.

If I was on the NZTR Board, I would ask the Board to demand that Trackside gives the thoroughbred code the same deal as the other codes - after all surely this would also be positive for turn over. At present, there is not one programme on Trackside that encourages participation in thoroughbred racing or showcases thoroughbred results and performance. Both horse and human endeavours I am talking about.

Thank goodness it appears that the Minister for Racing is about to announce some good news!

Last week you may have read my update where I wrote about the way NZTR failed to split a Maiden 2YO race with eight horses on the ballot. I also had some words of constructive criticism for the NZTR Board. Well I received a letter from NZTR, signed off by Bernard Saundry reprimanding me. Amongst other things, the letter accused me of making "digs" at the Board together with "personal attacks" and asking for a retraction.

My position remains the same - and I won't apologise for having opinions - and nor did I personally attack any individual! I remain of the view that changes need to take place with NZTR leadership - and urgently. There are some quality Board members who I do believe are doing their best to facilitate change - just as there are some outstanding NZTR staff such as Tim Aldridge and the folks we deal with in the stud book and registrations and syndication matters etc but overall change must come, and as I say, fast.

We hope to see you all at Te Rapa on Saturday - there are great fields and it will be a very good day of racing! And "Go the Lads" (Boys Get Paid) and Go the Tangerine!!

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