Te Akau Thursday Update

David writes:

What an absolutely stunning day it is has been today at Te Akau Stud.

It got down to 5 degrees at 4.30am this morning and you really felt like autumn was in the air. It wouldn't have needed to be much colder for us to see our first frost which is literally unheard of in March.

I always do this update on my dictaphone as I am driving around the farm and even though it is very dry, the cattle and sheep are in great condition. As I have mentioned before, we are in the middle of a drought at Te Akau Stud and indeed most of the Waikato. However the stock are still doing really well and now we have sold all of our lambs and we will be selling more prime steers in May/June.

We had 15mls of rain here on Monday night but all that will do is settle the dust for a few days. We need at least 100mls to get the grass growing again - I am predicting that we won’t get this level of rainfall for another three or four weeks.

All of the foals on the farm have now been weaned. We have about 20 foals each year from our mares, and they have all been beautifully handled by our team led by Deane, brilliantly assisted by Sara and Jess, and these youngsters are all absolutely thriving.

We have a special mix of feed that Dunstan and Dave Smith prepare for our foals. It is designed to our very stringent requirements and it is so effective - the foals (which are now actually weanlings) are looking in absolutely fantastic condition, growing and developing in superb fashion.

We are all certainly looking forward to the inaugural Champions' Day at Ellerslie - what a magnificent day of racing it will be.  One of this magnitude never seen before in New Zealand.

With over $8 million in stakes, it is being called 'New Zealand's Richest Sporting Event'!  It's a wonderful mix of innovation and tradition. The innovation being the inaugural NZB Kiwi slot race in which we will be represented by Damask Rose and the Derby where Hakkinen lines up - interestingly with ar by Savabeel!

We couldn’t be happier with how the horses have been working preparing for Ellerslie on Saturday but the fields are very strong so, as always on these major days, we need a lot of luck.

With Mark spending much more time in Australia currently, Sam has being a wonderful job leading the team and every horse is spot on for Saturday, we could not be happier with them all.  It is all about the team, and ours is world class - farm, Matamata, Riccarton and Cranbourne. 

We had a great day at Riccarton yesterday winning another two races, both horses Hooray For Harry and Dream Of The Moon  which were beautifully ridden by Michael McNab. 

Te Akau is also the leading stable in the South Island which is a big thrill! We have a lot of really great owners in the South Island, and they love going to see their horses race there. 

You can see from the latest NZ Trainers' Premiership what a great job the team is doing ...

https://loveracing.nz/RaceInfo/Trainer-Premierships.aspx

So indeed, it does take a team, and of course right up there, are our incredibly loyal owners too!

We also recorded a treble of wins the week prior at Taupo - speaking off Taupo, we also had a great day at the Taupo trials on Wednesday.

The track was just an absolute credit to the Taupo Racing Club and it should be very proud of the way that the Club is being administered.  

There were 11 2YO heats, withTe Akau youngsters winning seven of them including some quinellas. Some of the most impressive runners I thought, actually ran second so we are just very excited at how they are progressing.

Each day this week we have sent six yearlings away to be broken in. The home-breds have already finished being broken in and they have done three weeks each in the stable and are now back spelling at the farm.

We still have some shares available in top-notch yearlings and its quite incredible how successful the last horses to sell have been.

So if you want to be involved and have a runner in next year’s Karaka Millions – give us a call because we will have horses running in these big races for certain.

Best of luck to all our owners with runners involved in this most exciting weekend of racing - easily the most exciting weekend of racing in my lifetime. Easily the strongest fields I have ever seen too, so let’s hope Te Akau can be in the winner's circle - it's always tough on days like this but we will be trying our very best.

GO THE TANGERINE!