Te Akau Thursday Update

David writes:

Well what a month it has been!

Attending Derby and Melbourne Cup days at Flemington and then home to Te Akau Stud for 24 hours before heading back to Auckland to fly to Christchurch last Friday for our South Island Owners’ Event and the first day of New Zealand Cup Week on Saturday at Riccarton.

Karyn and I had a very enjoyable few days in Melbourne - we started off by attending the annual Derby eve Carbine Club luncheon, a huge event with almost 1000 guests.  It was interesting to hear the various speakers including Rich Ricci, the owner of the Cup favourite Vauban (who I read today has subsequently been sold for A$2 million).

Saturday was Derby Day which is always a great spectacle, as was Melbourne Cup Day - the crowds were massive.  The big race itself was beamed across the world to more than 750 million viewers.

The carnival attracted total crowd figures of 285,675 - more than 8% up on last year and the highest attendance since 2018. Cup Day itself saw a crowd of 91,000, the highest since 2017.

One thing that really impressed me, was the number of young people flocking to the races. Racing needs to attract younger generations to ensure its viability and Melbourne certainly played its part.

The Victoria Racing Club (VRC) reported there were ‘plenty of fresh faces’ - across the week it is incredible to learn that 45% of general admission ticket buyers were under the age of 35.

The carnival also had more than 14,000 accredited staff, showing what an important employer it is. The event delivered more than A$468 million in gross economic benefit in 2023 which is expected to be exceeded this year when final numbers come through.

We had the pleasure of meeting Kylie Rogers, the new VRC CEO and what a dynamic individual she is.  She was recently appointed to the role and has an impressive CV, and she is bound to have a major, positive influence on the Club and racing in the State and beyond.

While we didn’t win a race at Flemington, I thought most of our horses raced very well, especially Bellatrix Star in the Group 1 Coolmore Stud Stakes where she was a superb runner up to the colt Switzerland.  

Te Akau has won five stakes’ races in Melbourne already this season and we are very excited by the number of quality horses that Australian owners, breeders and studs are giving us to train.

Then on Sunday, Karyn and I headed in different directions.  Karyn was involved in interviewing a panel of guests for the VRC at its Chairman’s Luncheon which included Vauban’s owner Ricci Rich and the horse’s trainer Willie Mullins. I again visited our Cranbourne stable, where we welcomed a group of 80 visitors.

Our Australian stable now has 70 completed boxes and is a wonderful, brand new, state of the art facility.  It’s incredible the operation we have there, as the training track options are world class.  I have been to many training centres around the world, and our facility is top class!  We will soon have a new video ready to share with you - we feel very proud of our Australian operation headed by Mark, assisted by Te Akau Australia assistant trainer Ben Gleeson and a very dedicated team.

Landing back in New Zealand, we headed south and what a pleasure it was to for Karyn and I, together with Hunter Durrant, to host over 70 owners at our South Island Owners’ function.  A great chance to catch up with so many well known friends, and meet new owners too.  

Liam Riordan, who is over from Australia riding for us at the carnival, called in briefly too, and I know our owners enjoyed being able to meet him. We will also be welcoming Joshua Parr back to Riccarton fresh off his victory in the A$2 million Group 1 Spring Champion Stakes at Randwick. He has ridden successfully for us previously during Cup Week, winning stakes’ races, and has been engaged to ride Captured By Love in the Group 1 NZ 1000 Guineas.

Our New Zealand team started the NZ Cup Carnival in style on Saturday - Mark and Sam won four races across two venues, including a stakes’ race, and also recorded two second placings.

We all got a huge thrill out of Mehzebeen winning the Listed Metropolitan Trophy at Riccarton - she’s a tough mare we were entrusted to train. She had finished second in the Group 1 NZ Oaks as a three year old and was dead stiff in this race last year when being denied racing room when she had a lot more to offer.  

Since then she won the Taupo Cup in December but the stakes’ win she so richly deserved had eluded her, until Saturday. She looks on track for her NZ Cup tilt this coming Saturday.

Congratulations to her ownership team of Sarai Stud, Danny and Sharon Rolston and Sonia Waddell, together with the Davis, Duncan and Howe partnerships. 

Mehzebeen was selected and bought by Danny Rolston who is one of the best judges you will find. Danny was formerly Director of Sales for New Zealand Bloodstock and after 18 years with the company, headed to Hong Kong to become the Hong Kong Jockey Club’s Executive Manager of International Sales and Owners Advisory Service - a newly created role. As I said, we were very privileged that his team chose Te Akau to train her.

Our other winner on the first day of the NZ Cup carnival at Riccarton was Mazzucato, and we were thrilled for her owners, a number of who were on course to celebrate.

Hunter Durrant and our southern team are on fire - last season we won 63 races in the south, the most of any southern stable - we are very proud of their efforts.  With only 22 horses in training at Riccarton, we are again the leading southern stable at this stage of the season.  Te Akau is very committed to South Island racing.

A further two wins came at Te Rapa with Bella Voce and La Dorada saluting the judge, both ridden by Vinnie Colgan.  La Dorada, a two year old filly I bought from Karaka, was on debut. She has set up a pathway to the Karaka Millions with a tough win where she showed great fighting qualities to score.

Vinnie rode three winners on the day, our duo and also the Listed feature. Karyn and I and the whole team wish to send our sincere sympathies to Vinnie who undertook his riding commitments under very tough conditions, having lost his mother - everyone at Te Akau is thinking of you and your family Vinnie. 

The winning continued for our New Zealand team on Tuesday with a Te Aroha double. Celestial Wonder is an Xtravagant filly we bred at Te Akau and syndicated with our owners and she was very impressive winning at just her second start.  There was also plenty of cheering as Ocean Miss, raced by one of Karyn’s ladies’ syndicates, also won at just her second start too.

Mid week Wednesday we were back to Riccarton for Day 2 of the NZ Cup Carnival and how good was Cool Aza Rene!  She is a two year old filly I bought from this year’s Magic Millions’ sale for A$55,000 from the draft of the world class Newhaven Park Stud where both Cool Aza Beel (her sire) and Xtravagant both stand.  

Cool Aza Rene is actually out of an Xtravagant mare and has now won both of her starts.  She’s a tough, strong filly and will head back north via Wellington  next month with the Group 2 Wakefield Challenge Stakes on her radar.

This filly’s win brought up New Zealand win No. 50 for the season - that’s a lead of 23 on the Trainers’ Premiership.  Importantly our strike rate of 4.4 underlines what a terrific job Mark and Sam and our team are doing. Te Akau is the only stable to have passed the $1 million in stakes, having won almost $1.7 million for our owners already this season.

It’s also been great to welcome Victoria’s Champion Jockey Blake Shinn to Te Akau this week.  Blake is suspended currently but has been here getting to know our horses and helping with trackwork and jump outs, and we are really looking forward to seeing him in the tangerine more often in the future.

This weekend I will be on the farm with Blake and other guests across the weekend, while Karyn heads back to Riccarton.  Next week it is time for this year’s Ready To Run Sale at Karaka and we have been very busy undertaking catalogue and pedigree research, having attended the breeze ups at Te Rapa, and watching the videos countless times since.

This year is one of the best catalogues I can remember and we will certainly be looking to bring some horses home for you to be involved with.  We have purchased horses like Group 1 winners Gingernuts, Te Akau Shark and Hall of fame from this sale.

In the last eight weeks, nine individual horses we have purchased from the Ready to Run Sale have won races - Family Ties (who is also a stakes’ winner); Bello Mio; Malmaison; Can’t Kach Me; Vivacious; El Viento; Truth Or Dare; Our Paramour, and Stage ’N’ Screen.

Stage ’N’ Screen won on debut in Victoria, ran a luckless fourth in a Listed race at Flemington on Cup Day last start, and contests the A$1.5 million Group 1 Schweppes 1000 Guineas in Melbourne this weekend.

Keep an eye on our website or the live feed of the sale on 20 and 21 November to see what we buy as, if you are keen to be involved, our shares always get snapped up super quick.

You are very welcome to join me and the team at Karaka next week - if you would like to come out to the sales’ complex and be with the team, feel free to give me a call on 021 925 151 or call our racing manager Reece Trumper on 0274 388880 - you will be very welcome!

The week after that I am off to Australia for ten days with our team to inspect yearlings that are in the January Magic Millions’ Sale.

So as you can see, this time of the year is very full on, but we love it! It’s also a very busy time on the farm too.  Last Sunday we had 18 mls of rain at Te Akau Stud, so as you can imagine, the grass is really starting to takeoff.

Our mares and foals are also starting to arrive back at the farm which is always a thrill for our Te Akau Stud team who just love looking after them.

Last week we sold two units of steers (40 per unit) - they averaged $2,782 +GST each. We weaned the five-year-old ewes and we had our first lamb draft, selling 200 lambs at an average of $130 each.

This week we are shearing and drenching the lambs (3,200 of them) then they are all weaned. The ewes will then be shorn, so it is a huge week for the team.

Each week in November we sell two units of steers and then in December we go to four units.  All our prime steers are processed at Greenlea which is a family owned and operated company everyone in New Zealand can be proud of as Greenlea also does an huge amount in the community in which it operates.  Alan Radford, who has done all the buying and selling of our sheep cattle since 1979 does an amazing job for us.

Best of luck to all our owners with runners in coming days!