Te Akau Travel Log

David writes:

I can't tell you how excited I am about the Te Akau tangerine colours winning their first race at The Curragh!

As I have said before, The Curragh is a simply amazing racecourse - a huge racecourse with an incredible history and tradition - and for us to win a race on Oaks' Day at The Curragh is an incredible thrill and achievement for us all at Te Akau Racing.

I bought this now three year old in France for 70,000 euros - he is by Fastnet Rock out of a full sister to four-times Ascot Gold Cup winner Yeats. He was Lot 1 at the Deauville Sale and he was fully sold within three hours to some very good judges. So I am thrilled for his owners who backed me - this was the trip I went on before I had my major heart surgery so it is even more special - well done to Sir Peter Vela, Sir Patrick Hogan, Mohammed Moussa (a dear friend from Canada) and Laurie Laxon. I am sure there is plenty more to come for you with Torcedor.

Karyn and I are having a wonderful holiday in Honolulu. This week we have my eldest daughter Joanna and her husband Leon with us. Jo is six months pregnant so she is the well behaved one!!!

Tonight our stable rider Matt Cameron and his partner Blair Alexander arrive so tomorrow night we are going to our favourite restaurant to celebrate Matt's second premiership in a row … an unbelievable achievement by him. Gee it's incredible how his career has flown since he put the tangerine colours on!

We are really enjoying getting all the updates from home.  Robyn and Melissa are holding the fort in the office and Robyn is also project manager extraordinaire, overseeing our bathroom alterations! Sam Boyd and Luke Copeland have everything going well at the farm and Steve and Jamie have everything ticking over brilliantly at the stables as we head in to the new season. We have the best team of horses to race in New Zealand this season ever in the history of Te Akau so yes I am very much looking forward to getting home and getting back to work.

The season kicks off for us at the Te Teko trials were we will have 50 young horses ready to go!!  Karyn and I will be there on Tuesday 4 August and look forward to seeing you!

I was surprised that the races at both New Zealand venues were called off so early yesterday.  I absolutely agree safety is paramount however if it is raining why not just delay the races for one hour and reassess from there.  Some people are saying that had this happened, then there is every chance Te Rapa at least would have been able to go ahead.  It's just ridiculous the number of meetings we are losing … it didn't happen in my days of racing administration so I wonder why so many seem to fall by the wayside now.  The cost to the industry of yesterday's cancellations are just huge.

Today our attention turns to Singapore racing this evening where our Te Akau Singapore trainer Mark Walker has a nice team assembled, including a promising O'Reilly horse owned by Mark Chittick. He is called Damon and looks well placed this evening.

Have a great week and we will stay in touch!