Te Akau Tuesday Update

Date: 7 Oct 2014

Te Akau Tuesday Update

David writes:

Gee it was a full on weekend in Sydney …. we arrived in Sydney on Thursday afternoon and went out for dinner with Darley General Manager Henry Plumptre who I have known for 30 years.   Darren Beadman who works for Darley and breeder John Camilleri.  Darren was one of the best jockeys in the world until he had a bad fall in Hong Kong - actually he won a Group 1 for me at Ellerslie with Captain Moonlight who won the Zabeel Classic in about 1998.  Darren is a champion guy and it is so good to see him back working after his terrible accident - anyway there was plenty to chat about and catch up on.

Darley has two big stables in Sydney and have over 200 horses in work every day.  On
Friday morning Henry picked us up at the hotel and we went out to their pre training farm at Osborne …. what a magnificent property comprising four tracks and 88 horses in work. It is just an amazing set up.

Plum,ptre

After lunch we went to Warwick Farm to Crown Lodge where they train 120 horses all owned by Sheik Mohammed, the Ruler of Dubai.  John O'Shea their new trainer showed us around this great operatyion and I was really taken by how the horses all looked ….. my way of being in paradise is walking around a big stable full of beautiful horses. Then we returned back to our hotel to prepare for a huge day of racing at Royal Randwick on Saturday.

On Saturday at Randwick I was pretty busy in the betting ring backing Wolfwhistle at Hawkes Bay and cheering him on to win and as I was about to leave Robbie Waterhouse called out and I went over and had a good chat to him.  He told me Gai would win Race 3 so back to the tote I went!  This colt was ridden by Joao Moreira who I think is as good a jockey as I have ever seen.  Joao is now riding in Hong Kong but told me he would love to ride in Sydney full time one day.

Isn't the ex-pat Kiwi trainer Chris Waller having an amazing run - his horses all looked in great shape. We had a good chat to Chris in the birdcage and he is a very friendly, capable chap.  Most of his success is coming from horses he has imported from Europe.

On Sunday we went to Tulloch Lodge for the owners parade to catch up with Gai Waterhouse and Joe Walls spoke about the Ready to Run Sale coming up in New Zealand.  Bruce Slade, who is now a full time syndicator and racing manager, spoke exceptionally well and told all the guests how David Ellis gave Gai her first ever Group 1 winner.

It was fun seeing it all first hand and then it was off to lunch where our special guests were the two champion Sydney jockeys James McDonald and Hugh Bowman.  James was our Te Akau stable jockey at a really important time of his career when he was in New Zealand.

Boys Sydney

We went to a beautiful restaurant in Bondi called Iceburg. The food there is world class. Then it was back to our hotel to watch the Singapore races. I was thrilled to see the Singapore Champion War Affair win the Group One race.  The owners of this horse asked me to buy a colt for them for up to $150,000 and I bought War Affair for $70,000 and what a champion he is - just about unbeatable.

That evening we had dinner with Michael Kirwan and Colm Santry from Coolmore Stud. We train for Coolmore in Singapore and in New Zealand.  Then Monday morning it was back to New Zealand.   First thing today I have been going around all the horses and the sheep and cattle at Te Akau Stud and later in the week I will be in Matamata to visit the stable.

Everybody is talking about the Rock 'N' Pop and Burgundy foals - if you have a mare doing nothing mate her - there is going to be a big shortage of horses just around the corner and you can't go wrong mating to these two stallions.

Have a great week!

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