Te Akau Tuesday Update

David writes:

Winter, as you would expect, has well and truly arrived!  There were some very heavy showers all through the night at Te Akau Stud last night and the temperature has certainly dropped.  However on the positive side, the ground temperature is still quite good - meaning that we are still getting really good grass growth.

We are so lucky that over the years we have never missed applying fertiliser and it is quite staggering just how much grass our cattle have in front of them.

We only have eight yearlings in their breaking in period remaining on the farm - I am particularly thrilled with the two colts that we bought in Sydney.  One looks a natural two year old type and the other more a Derby type of colt.  These remaining youngsters will all be in the stable in coming weeks.

The main picture with this update includes some of the yearlings that have just joined the stable for their first experience there - from left to right - 1f Stratum - Benatar (K. Hillis), 1f Makfi - Bislieri (Leveque), Rusty the lead pony (K. Jones) & 1f Iffraaj - Regal Thrills (Fawcett).

I very much enjoyed the racing at Te Rapa on Saturday.  We had two special guests in our box at Te Rapa too - Colin and Alison Jillings came down from Auckland to see Brer race in the feature steeplechase.  Colin kept everyone highly entertained with stories about his big wins in racing.  Can you imagine?  A Group 1 Derby training success in five consecutive decades, that is one heck of an achievement and you can easily see why he is a Hall of Fame inductee.

My first ever jumps' race that I saw live was 45 years ago when the Colin Jilling's trained Brockton won the Great Northern Hurdles and Steeplechase double at Queen's Birthday weekend at Ellerslie in 1971 - he went back to back in the steeple', winning again in 1972.  He won his first steeplechase by 40 odd lengths when ridden by Baggy Hillis and it was an incredible sight to behold.  Colin and Alison have just celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary - now that is also quite some achievement!

As I mentioned, Colin is a Hall of Fame trainer and he is definitely the best trainer I have ever seen when it comes to setting a horse for a big race.  Just a genius.  They always seemed to peak on just the right day!

Back to Te Rapa racing ... Brer went a super race to run second in the Waikato Steeplechase, a prestige jumps' event.  Gee it is exciting seeing a good jumper go over live fences.  From our three runners, two seconds and a fourth was our best for that day but it has been a wonderful winning period of late for our owners.

Mark Walker, our Te Akau Singapore trainer, had another good weekend with two winners including a grey Star Witness gelding called Court Case who I purchased at Karaka from Bill Gleeson and Michael Morton.  I bought him specifically to race in Singapore and it was great to see him show a lot of improvement to win the final race on the programme, his second win now from seven starts.  He has also posted a second placing and now has stakes' earnings of just over $80,000 from those seven appearances.

Splitting our horses across two stables in two countries realistically means that we are unlikely to win Trainers' Premierships however Mark is three wins ahead in Singapore and Steve and Jamie lead in New Zealand by six wins and are ahead on black type wins too - it is a remarkable achievement.

Today Karyn and I have my eldest daughter Joanna coming to stay with grandson Ted who we are really looking forward to seeing.  Karyn has promised to get her last travel update done for you too!

Have a great week and keep warm and PS happy birthday for last Friday to Melissa who works with us in the Te Akau Stud office!  A delicious cake was enjoyed by all at the farm for morning tea today to celebrate!