Te Akau Tuesday Update

David writes:

Everything changes as we leave winter and start Spring.

Spring is always my favourite time of the year. Yesterday it was 21 degrees at Te Akau Stud and the grass is really starting to grow. You can just see the cattle really starting to put on weight and the lambs are absolutely thriving.

What an exciting day we had on Saturday with five wins, across three of our stables!

Starting with the first two-year-old race of the season. This is always a real sign that Spring racing is underway.  I am proud that Te Akau has now won this race six times since 2008, with horses I have purchased.

Te Akau's previous winners have included Cool Aza Beel who went on to win the Karaka 2YO Million and the Group 1 Sistema Stakes before being crowned Champion 2YO of the Year.  He now stands at stud at Newhaven Park in NSW. 

Bellatrix Star was last season's winner for the stable, and she went on to run fourth in the Karaka 2YO Million, and is now campaigning from our Cranbourne stable, having debuted in Victoria in promising fashion.  The year prior it was Rubicon Crossing, who went on to be twice stakes' placed.

This season, it was the turn of a powerful young Snitzel colt that I bought from Curraghmore Stud. To Bravery Born was ridden by our stable jockey Opie Bosson ONZM, who had nothing but praise for the professionalism if the youngster.  

If you get a chance, google his dam's name Milunka and you will see where his name comes from - the Milunka Savic story is quite a remarkable one.

With that 2YO race worth $25,000, To Bravery Born has certainly put his Karaka 2YO Millions' chances in focus having banked prize money that traditionally would almost guarantee him a place in the future field.  Te Akau has won the Karaka 2YO Million seven times in a row (2017-2023) and we believe we have the right youngsters to again prove highly competitive in the race in 2025. 

It's really important to remember however that we never put pressure on young horses. If continuing with their early preparations is not the right thing for that individual horse, or they are showing us they need a break, we will never hesitate to give them that time they need.  We simply don't believe in putting undue pressure on any young horse and while sometimes that can be disappointing for owners, they also know that we will always do the right thing and put our horses' well-being first.

Unfortunately we had to scratch our other runner for that event - when he arrived in the Central Districts the day before, he had very snotty nose and temperature.  He has remained at Royden Bergerson's to recuperate before he will be able to travel back to the stable.  He is raced by Yulong Investments and has shown good early promise, so we really look forward to seeing him back on track in the near future.  

The winning continued in the south when our Riccarton base flew into action with three wins on the programme, including a stable quinella by two of our 3YO fillies in one of the races!  

It's been a busy few days for our southern team, headed by Hunter Durrant, with a race meeting last Thursday on the synthetic track, before racing on the turf on Saturday. On Thursday, home bred filly Not Straight Laced did the business for her breeder owners - my wife Karyn, Glenn and Catherine Holmes and Cheryl Renouf - not sure who named the filly (I have my suspicions) but I know they had fun coming up with that one.

On the Saturday the winning treble came through The Victress (quinella with our ladies' syndicate filly About Last Night), Fellini and Kabugee.  All three were ridden by our former apprentice Wiremu (Billy) Pinn who is riding in fine form.

The icing on the cake came with win No.5 for the day with our Group 1 winning mare Quintessa, another top class performer I bought from Karaka.  She recently retuned to our Cranbourne base to campaign again in Australia, and deal with some 'unfinished business'. She had previously been beaten a lip in the group 1 Alister Clark Stakes at Moonee Valley and had been fourth in both the Group 1 Australian Guineas at Flemington and the Group 1 Australian Oaks in Sydney.

I was thrilled to see her win the A$200,000 Group 3 Tobin Brothers Cockram Stakes in such stylish fashion, showing she's in for a very good Australian campaign.  She was ridden by another former Te Akau apprentice in Daniel Stackhouse who has really made a name for himself in Victoria.  You might remember this is a race that we previously won for Cambridge Stud's Jo and Brendan Lindsay with their star mare Probabeel, who also was purchased out of the Karaka Sale by me.

Congratulations to all the wonderful team we have looking after these horses, both at our stables and the farm. We simply could not do it without their incredible work ethic and passion - they all truly love the horses that they look after.

We also could not achieve these results without having the best owners in the business too - we have such a wonderful family of owners, new and existing, and their loyalty is something we truly appreciate and value.

Yesterday morning Mark and Sam took ten horses to Taupo to gallop - Campionessa, Cognito, What You Wish For, Talisker, Captured By Love, Damask Rose, Wild Night, Move to Strike, Skew Wiff and Egyptian Queen all travelled and we had five gallops of two. We had Opie Bosson and Wiremu Pinn riding them and they all galloped in good fashion.

Today we have about 15 horses trialling in Cambridge - we were hoping to have more but had to change plan when the grass trials were called off. A number of our horses are not suited by trialling on the synthetic surface, so the team (as always) has Plan B up its sleeve.

We have two horses heading to Australia tomorrow to stake their claims at the upcoming carnivals - Stage 'N' Screen and Truth or Dare are on the plane tomorrow bound for our Cranbourne stable. Stage 'N' Screen heads over as a debutante with excellent trial form under her belt, while Truth or Dare shapes as a lovely staying type of horse who will relish the opportunities available there. 

Both horses were bought by me from the Ready to Run Sale - good luck to their connections as we all eagerly wait to see them perform across the Tasman.

It looks like the track at Hawkes Bay on Saturday for the first day of the Hawkes Bay Carnival is going to be magnificent, and the grass track played well at Riccarton on Saturday which is all good news. That is one of the reasons we send horses to the South Island with Cup Week in mind because they traditionally get better tracks a lot quicker than we do in the North.

Yesterday we had New Zealand Bloodstock Sales' Manager Kane Jones and Bloodstock Sales' Representative Patrick Cunningham out to Te Akau Stud to look at our yearlings that are heading to the Karaka Sale in January 2025.  Kane and Patrick are impressive individuals who are doing a fantastic job and we are certainly very lucky to have young people of this calibre choosing careers in the industry.

This morning at Matamata, the sand was in great order and we had some very nice horses galloping - I am predicting by October we will have some more potential-filled two year olds that will come out to race.

Shares in the yearlings that we bought at five different sales earlier this year are still selling. We still some final shares available in promising young horses - they are all broken in and they are starting to show us what they are made of! It is incredible how often the last to sell are amongst the very best - I don't need to remind anyone this was the case with the likes of Imperatriz, Avantage, Cool Aza Beel,  and even our first group winner of the season Quintessa was one of the last to sell in her year.

So, if you would like to be involved and race a horse in the tangerine, feel free to give me a call on +64 21 925 151 or email Karyn - [email protected] - all shares available are listed on our website.

Best of luck to our owners with runners this week and especially at Hawkes Bay on Saturday where New Zealand has its first Group 1 day for the season.  We will be well represented by a very nice team, including the likes of Skew Wiff who is defending her Group 1 Tarzino crown, while Group 1 winning colt Move To Strike gets his 3YO season underway, as does multiple Group winning filly Captured By Love.

At Moonee Valley, Bellatrix Star is also nominated for the Listed Musk Creek Farm Atlantic Jewel Stakes over 1200m on the back of her eye-catching debut at Caulfield in mid August.

It's hard to believe, when you think of Saturday's meeting at The Valley, that it's been a year since Imperatriz took the Group 1 Moir Stakes by storm, smashing her own 1000m track record that she had previously set in the Group 2 McEwen Stakes at the start prior.

Reading through the nominations for the race on Saturday, there are the names of some of Imperatriz's familiar foes - Bella Nipotina, Estriella, Johnny Rocker ..... gee Berri was world class wasn't she?

Speaking of our 10-time Group 1 winning superstar, Imperatriz has just been named as one of five finalists for the prestigious Australian Horse of the Year title, which will be announced in October.  She is also a finalist for Australian Champion Sprinter/Miler of the Year.

This weekend we will celebrate the New Zealand Horse of the Year awards to be staged at Hamilton and Te Akau is well represented: 

We have three of the four finalists for Champion 2YO title - Bellatrix Star, Captured by Love and Move To Strike. Quintessa lines up for Champion 3YO honours, Imperatriz contests the Champion Sprinter/Miler award, and Campionessa vies for Champion Stayer honours.  

Mark and Sam will be recognised as the 2023/24 Trainers' Premiership winners and are one of two finalists for the Champion Trainer title, while stable rider Opie Bosson ONZM is in the hunt for Champion Jockey honours.

Owner of the Year finalists comprise many familiar names - we are proud to see John Elstob and Denise Bassett named in the line-up, while of the other contenders, Gerry Harvey, Ben Kwok, Brendan and Jo Lindsay Partnership, Daniel Nakhle, and Waikato Stud all have horses in training with Te Akau.

Good luck to all finalists, I am sure it will be a terrific evening sponsored by SENZ (TAB/Entain).

I would also like to congratulate Entain for its continued leadership in so many aspects of our industry. The changes we have seen on Trackside (as just one example), including innovations like Trackside Premier on the major days, are really making a difference. 

We have some real talent in our broadcasting ranks too - it has been brilliant to welcome Jayne Ivil back to New Zealand screens, a class act in every way. It's also terrific to see highly regarded, experienced national broadcaster Guy Heveldt also joining Trackside, fresh from the Paris Olympics.

You can just see the energy and determination of the leadership to take very aspect of its business to the next level.

That's something I am always passionate about, taking things to the next level - whether in our own operation, or as an industry, we need to be aspirational.  We need to keep pushing hard and driving dynamic change, and supporting Entain/TAB and NZTR in their endeavours - one obvious upside to this will be seeing talented young people choose career paths in our industry. We need to keep attracting and retaining this capability as they will play crucial roles in years to come.

They are our future.

Good luck to all our owners with runners over this coming week and weekend - Matamata races tomorrow of course - we cannot wait to enjoy Hastings on Saturday and the first Group 1 of the new season!