Te Akau Thursday Update
Date: 8 Sep 2022
David writes:
Congratulations to the team at New Zealand Thoroughbred Racing for staging such a wonderful evening at the Claudelands' Event Centre on Sunday night for the NZTR Horse of the Year Awards.
It has been three years since the awards have been able to be hosted live and what a night it was! It was a great night for Te Akau Racing, winning ten awards.
Our Te Akau apprentice Joe Kamaruddin, who is riding in great style, finished 5th on the New Zealand Jockey's Premiership and won the New Zealand Apprentice Premiership. we were so proud as well of Nicole Shailer who was named New Zealand Stablehand of the Year, following on from Te Akau's Ashley Handley who won the award last year.
Group 1 winning juvenile Maven Belle was crowned Champion Two Year Old. Dual Group 1 winner Imperatriz was voted Champion Three Year Old.
Our Group 1 NZ Oaks' winner Oaks winner Belle en Rouge dead-heated with Self Obsession (who we are also proud to train) for the New Zealand Bloodstock Filly of the Year title. That means Te Akau has now produced eight NZB Fillies of the Year!
Probabeel was again the Champion Middle Distance Horse and was bestowed back to back Horse of the Year titles - how proud are we.
So congratulations to all our owners and special congratulations to Brendan and Jo Lindsay who for the second year in a row had the horse of the year with Probabeel. This was the fourth year in a row that I have bought the Horse of the Year winner which is pretty exciting. Brendan and Jo also won the Owners' Premiership as well as the Owner of the Year title.
Our trainer last season, Jamie Richards won both the Trainers' Premiership and was the only nominee for the Trainer of the Year award. A fantastic achievement for Jamie and the whole team that supported him and made Te Akau's season one to remember.
It was great to see Michael Mcnab win the Jockey's Premiership as well as the Jockey of the Year award. Well done Michael, it's just incredible how well you've done in the last couple of years, we are all very proud of you at Te Akau Racing.
A special mention to our other finalists - Dynastic (Champion 2YO), Belle En Rouge, Self Obsession, Noverre, Sword of State and The Perfect Pink (Champion 3YO), Entriviere (Champion Sprinter/Miler) and Savy Yong Blonk (Champion Middle Distance horse).
In a year where Opie Bosson, our stable rider, completed a 'full book' of having now won all Group 1 races in New Zealand, he was also a fitting finalist for Champion Jockey of the Year.
This past week, I got a big thrill out of seeing Hero Worship, an Xtravagant gelding bred by Newhaven Stud, win at Matamata. He was beautifully ridden by Troy Harris and that was the 50th winner Troy has ridden for Mark Walker.
Xtravagant, a past New Zealand 2000 Guineas' winner (who still holds the winning margin record of 8.5 lengths), stands for A$24,000 at Newhaven Park Stud which is about half way between Sydney and Melbourne and he has a full book this season.
The very next race was won by Madame Moet, an Iffraaj filly out of Champagne Katie that I purchased from Wentwood Grange and that was Mark's 19th win for the season, which is only five weeks' old. Mark is one of the hardest working men I have ever met and regularly starts work at the stable at 2.00am.
How proud are we that both our trainers - Mark in New Zealand and Donna in Singapore - both lead their respective Trainers' Premierships.
Racing at this time of the year is always frustrating because of the wet, heavy tracks. It will be another month before we get good tracks so it is going to be a frustrating period but nobody can do anything about that.
It was terrific to see Entriviere attract so much attention on Gavelhouse Plus last night ... while she only raced for 23 months, she claimed Group races on both sides of the Tasman and won 7 of her 16 starts with seven further placings - earning $725,000 for her very proud owners. She was purchased by Yulong for $900,000 - the stud that also bought Melody Belle. She will head to Australia in coming days to be served any one of its exciting young stallions.
It's been a lovely day on the farm, although still quite cold but the grass is still growing and the ewes have just about finished lambing. We had our second full day of docking yesterday and that went really well.
We are already looking forward to Hawke's Bay Racing this Saturday where Imperatriz is the favourite for the Group 1 Tarzino Trophy. We also have some nice chances across the three year old races - the Hawkes Bay Guineas and Gold Trail Stakes.
Yesterday morning Dynastic and Imperatriz both galloped extremely well at Matamata so it will be interesting to see what the track does. At the moment it is a Heavy10 and more rain is forecast on Friday and Saturday. So best of luck to our owners with horses racing this weekend and congratulations to our owners who were involved in winning awards on Sunday night.
Have a great weekend and ...