Te Akau Tuesday Update

David writes:

Well what a start it has been to the New Year - with eight Te Akau winners in just seven days!

The team has really been on fire in New Zealand over this busy holiday period - always one of the very busiest times of the year for people in racing.

It started on Boxing Day at Ellerslie - always a tough day to win races with such high quality racing - and I was thrilled to see Steve and Jamie win with two very good sons of Savabeel - Splurge and Hall of Fame, both ridden to perfection by Opie Bosson.  I bought both of these horses from Karaka - Splurge from the Premier Yearling Sale and Hall of Fame from the Ready to Run Sale.

This pair has an exciting future - Hall of Fame for example is being set for the Group 1 Levin Classic at Trentham on 14 January, where bookmakers have installed him as the favourite.

The best part of their winning performances was seeing so many overjoyed owners on course - it was great to celebrate the festive season in such style with such a terrific result for them.

Two days later the team was on the winning double trail again - this time at two different venues but on the same day - with Foreigner winning at Rotorua and Nucleonic at New Plymouth.  The former, and another Savabeel 3YO, is raced by a small group of friends including Australian Max Whitby who is well known for his support of New Zealand racing, Werrett Bloodstock which of course is a part owner of global superstar mare Black Caviar and Bryan Rutter.  We were delighted for them as we believe this gelding has a promising future.

The win by Nucleonic of course gave me a massive, personal thrill as I am sure you understand - to be by Burgundy, who I bought at Karaka and who I still believe was the fastest horse Te Akau has trained, to be bred by Greg Tomlinson and me at Te Akau Stud out of the Singapore Champion 2YO and 3YO Mexican Rose and to be Burgundy's third winner from three starters - I can't tell you how excited I was!

I have been talking about Burgundy in these updates and to anyone who will listen (or not!) ever since he went to stud - I have always believed that he would make an exciting stallion and so far, his record speaks for itself.  There wouldn't be many stallions anywhere that have had three to the races and all have come home winners.  They are really lovely young horses, athletic and with great heads - and it has been the manner in which they have won - Nucleonic drew the widest gate, crossed them easily and cruised in for a comfortable win, ears pricked.  I can't wait to see her career unfold.

Karyn and I were in Auckland that day and so we celebrated with some friends at Soul Bar with a nice lunch before heading back to the farm.

At Ellerslie on 29 December, we had Group 1 winners Xtravagant and Heroic Valour (main picture) gallop between races with Opie Bosson aboard Xtravagant and Michael McNab on Heroic Valour.  Both are right on target for their respective assignments - Xtravagant will head fresh up into the Group 1 Telegraph Handicap at Trentham on 21 January, where he is currently the favourite.  Heroic Valour will line up in the Listed Karaka Mile at Ellerslie at the Karaka Million twilight meeting on the eve of the Karaka Premier Sale.

On New Year's Eve we caught up with our vet Dr Douglas Black and his family - his sister Catherine and her husband are visiting from the UK and have been very kind to our London-based daughter Lydia so we wanted to say 'thank you'.  We watched the Stratford races together over lunch - the "double" delight continued as we cheered debutant Don'tblamethemusic and Hushed home, both winning stylishly.

Don'tblamethemusic is a 3YO son of Coats Choice that I bought from the South Island sale for just $22,000 on the recommendation of Jamie Richards.  Hushed was given to Te Akau to train by his breeders Dr Ronald Boet and Anne Hadfield - a big, slower maturing horse, time has truly been his friend - both of these horses look in for a very good season.

So that was a terrific way to complete 2016 - six wins in five days - but the good news continued with two wins to kick start the New Year!

Yesterday at Tauherenikau, Colorado Prince won on debut.  It was a gritty performance in which the horse showed a lot of determination to put his head down and fight for the victory for the Fortuna team.  This is another horse bred at Te Akau Stud and is a half brother to two very good mares that we also trained for Fortuna in stakes' winners Darci's Dream and Windborne.

It also didn't take our Singapore trainer Mark Walker long to get winning underway at Kranji either.  The new season started on 1 January in Singapore which runs to a calendar year there and Mark, fresh from a "spell" in New Zealand, was right back into business.  I was delighted to see a horse that I purchased from Sydney, a 4YO by Exceed and Excel called Unsurpassed, salute the judge last night.  This is a horse who will do well in Singapore, it has taken a little time for his first win as he needed to drop back in class but now that he has, I think his owners are in for a good season with him too.

It was great having Mark home for a few weeks in December and to be fair - he wasn't really in the spelling paddock at all!!  Mark is a great planner and, when he wasn't on the yearling inspection trail with me, he was busy strategising for his new season and liaising daily with his team of Robbie, Gus and Karen who were keeping everything running smoothly in his absence.  Mark finished third on the Trainers' Premiership last season, after winning the title the year before.  He is a world class trainer and we love watching all the races on Trackside.

Well today I am a very happy man because as I write it is pouring with rain - whilst that might be frustrating for racing (and I know getting horses ready this season has been tough with the weather and abandonments etc.) - with my farmer's hat on, this is beautiful rain and the farm has never looked this good at this time of the year.  I know it is a shame for holidaymakers but at least someone is happy!!

I have also been busy with the Karaka catalogue and reviewing all of the yearlings we have inspected thus far - I am back on the road tomorrow and really from now on in, every day will be filled with yearling viewings, re-visiting pedigrees and finalising our plans for the Karaka sale.

It is such a crucial time of the year for the stable - the horses we buy at this sale will be hitting their straps in another eight, twelve, eighteen months time and beyond - so the time and the effort and the study is really a top priority.

It will be all hands on deck too - Karyn will be working for Trackside, I will be joined by Steve and Jamie (as their training commitments allow), Mark will be back from Singapore, our racing manager Brad Taylor will be on site as will our social media and marketing manager Julia-Rose (Mrs Hayes to be!) who will be keeping our website and Facebook pages up to date as the buying action happens.

Remember if you want to be on our priority list and receive updates directly of the horses we will have shares available in - email Karyn - [email protected]

Thank you in advance for all of the support you give to us at Karaka - we have a brilliant family of owners and we really look forward to buying exciting horses for you - as well as making 2017 a special racing year.