Te Akau Travel Log

David writes:

What wonderful news out of New Zealand this week on New Zealand racing with New Zealand Bloodstock, New Zealand Thoroughbred Racing and the Auckland Racing Club announcing that we will have another $1 million race on the horizon at Ellerslie.

What an incredible six race programme it will be!  The 3YO Karaka Mile will be worth $1 million from 2018 (it is rising from $100,000 to $250,000 in 2016).  Te Akau has a truly amazing record in this event with two wins and three runners up in six years!

This will be a huge boost for the galloping code with more good news we gather to be announced shortly.

In other good news - isn't it great to see Mark Walker on fire with our Singapore stable?  Mark again trained two winners on Friday night to take him now 11 wins clear on the Singapore Trainers' Premiership.  What a great effort.

The main race on the programme (worth S$125,000) was won by Mark with My Lucky Strike for the Lucky Stable - in fact both winners on Friday were for them - so lucky by name and by nature!  That victory also brought up Mark's 50th winner for the season - 50 winners in a tick over six months is outstanding.

The win also took Te Akau Singapore's stakes' earnings for our owners past the $2.5 million mark - a brilliant result for all our international and New Zealand owners who support our stable in Singapore.

On Thursday I had one of my favourite days - I travelled to Charlie Hills training complex at Lambourn - this is a remarkable property.  I just loved watching all the horses work in groups of about 30 and inspecting some very good horses including one colt who won at group 1 at Royal Ascot this past month.  Charlie took over training from his father Barry Hills - Lambourn is about 1.25 hours from London.

I thought you would enjoy some of the pictures - the gallops are just incredible with a 2.5 mile straight grass gallop.  The facilities are top class and, in my opinion, Charlie will be a trainer who will continue to make a huge impact in the future.

The gallops are situated adjacent to the yard which allows the horses to gain access without having to walk along roads. The extensive private gallops comprise of:

Faringdon Road (below) - is a nine furlong woodchip gallop (spur first pic and then start)

 The five furlong polytrack gallop (below)

Grass gallops underway (below)

The Crowdown eight furlong woodchip gallop/eight furlong grass gallop (below)

The Indoor School (below) has a polytrack surface and is used by Charlie to assess the horses before exercise.  It is also used to lunge and break the yearlings, introduce horses to the starting stalls and for exercise during inclement weather.

The mile long walking track (below) is situated in a paddock opposite the complex and is used as a warm up before the horses canter.

After watching the horses work, we sat down for a cup of coffee and next minute the first race comes on and Charlie tells me that he thinks his horse is a good thing in the two year old race.  I asked Charlie to put a place bet on for me but he misunderstood (probably my accent!!) me and put my bet each way at 15 to 1.

You wouldn't believe it but I said to myself "this is a moment of madness" and then realised that the colt was called "A Moment of Madness" and after a wonderful ride by James McDonald, I got the win as he held on by half a head! This colt is a juvenile by Elnadim and is raced by well known owner Mrs Ann Plummer.

Charlie has 150 horses in work and he trains for all the major owners in Europe.  I would hate to think where racing in this part of the world would be without owners such as the Arabians.  They race 1000s of horses in England alone.

Yesterday was another fine and sunny day in London and I started early with breakfast with our friend and owner David Williams QC.  David has a couple of horses in work with us in Matamata and is an incredibly interesting and intelligent Queen's Counsel.  He works now as an international arbitrator and spends about six months living in Europe with the remainder of his time in New Zealand.

Last night I took Karyn and Lydia and Julia to a restaurant that they had chosen called "Duck and Waffle" - what spectacular views over London as you can see from the main picture and those below.

It is almost impossible to get a table and in fact Karyn booked about four months ago and even then could only get a dinner reservation for 5.15pm. The signature dish is, you guessed it, duck and waffle as you can see - sounds strange?  it was delicious.

It's our last day in London today, we leave tomorrow for the United States - it's another warm day and I have just been for a walk before I take Karyn and the girls out for a special farewell dinner.