Te Akau Tuesday Update

David writes:

It's just so heartbreaking to see what the overnight flooding has done to Te Akau Stud - I went around the sheep and cattle farm at daybreak today and the damage in the form of huge slips, damage to bridges, fences etc would almost bring you to tears.  We have a big job ahead of us to try and restore some normality to things, the damage would easily be in the hundreds of thousands of dollars - I have never seen anything like it in my almost 40 years at Te Akau Stud. It's just such a sad sight.

What a mixed weekend we had - a terrific day at Riccarton with four winners and second and third  placings and then the abandonment at Hawkes Bay.

Actually the day at Hastings started off in great fashion with Gingernuts' little brother Griffin going a ripper of a race to only just get beaten in the Group 2 Hawkes Bay Guineas.  I think that he looks like a pretty exciting horse and he can now run at Te Rapa on Labour Day in the Group 2 James and Annie Sarten Memorial then we will consider the Group 1 NZ 2000 Guineas for him.

Then all of a sudden the Hastings' day turned sour and as the rain came and set in, there was a real sense of impending 'doom' around the racecourse and you could just see everyone thinking 'oh no surely not'.

It was all so sad - sad for everyone - the horses, the owners, the jockeys and the trainers.  But I also felt so sorry for the Club that had done an unbelievable job of promoting the day with record sales and it would have been a bumper result had the weather been different.  I am sure the Club will take a huge financial hit with the way everything turned out, so it was good to see that major race day sponsor Livamol has stood by the Club and the Group 1 has been rescheduled.

It was also a devastating outcome for Gingernuts' and Chance to Dance's owners with their horses ripe and ready to contest the Group 1, them being favourite and third favourite respectively. However we are lucky that we have amazing owners and they all understand that you cannot control the weather.

Our attention now for Gingernuts will turn to the A$2 million Emirates Stakes (formerly known as the LKS Mackinnon Stakes) at Flemington on the last day of the Melbourne Cup Carnival.  Steve and Jamie will decide which is the best way to get Gingernuts to this race and we do have both local and Australian options lined up.  They will take a number of factors in to account including "Jerry's" progress in the interim in line with the timing and distance of the lead up events.

Te Akau has established a great record of travelling horses to Australia over the years and last season we won races in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane - at Group 1, Group 2 and Group 3 level and we were the only New Zealand stable to campaign across three Australian states.  We also won more prize money in New Zealand for our owners than any other stable and that is something I am really proud of.

Back to the outcomes from Hawkes' Bay - Chance to Dance has been confirmed for the re-staged Group 1 Livamol Classic that will now take place at Hastings as part of the Otaki race meeting that has been transferred there on Sunday 22 October.

Have you noticed how well the stock of Burgundy is going?  he is flying as a stallion and is now almost fully booked.  His 3YO son Hard Merchandize added the Group 2 Sacred Falls Hawkes' Bay Guineas to his 2YO stakes' win on Saturday - Burgundy really is a sire on the upward move.  We have plenty of them in the stable and they sure can gallop.

Speaking of horses that can certainly gallop - gee our horses are running brilliantly in the South Island - as I said at the start of this update,  Te Akau won almost half of the card at Riccarton (four races) on Saturday and that was a huge thrill.  Two of our owners actually celebrated three winners on the day! It was great to see quite a number of our North Island owners also head south to support their horses and enjoy being in the winners' circle - there is nothing quite like it!

Dan Miller is doing an unbelievable job down there for us, supported by Teagan Newman, and Steve and Jamie were very confident that we would have a good day on Saturday and so it came to pass, with Te Akau going within a nose of winning five on the day - we all thought Grazia has just got home!

I was really rapt to see 2YO filly Avantage win her first start - this is a filly that I bought from Karaka for $210,000 and she is Listed Welcome Stakes' bound during Cup Week. Steve and Jamie and all the team have done an unbelievable job of educating our young horses and there is nothing more exciting than seeing a two year old clear out and win its first start with confidence.

Another thrill for me is having broadcaster Tony Veitch in the ownership of Avantage and I was rapt to find out that Tony had played the race on his award-winning sports' programme.  Before the TAB had its own radio station, all races used to be broadcast on Radio Pacific and of course Newstalk ZB so this would have been their first race call for about 20 years (outside of big events like the Melbourne Cup you'd think).

So yes a good day at Riccarton with the winners being Avantage and also Age of Fire - this meant that we had a Fastnet Rock winning double with the two of his offspring I have bought.  Age of Fire is a colt I purchased from the Sydney Easter sale last year and he won the Guineas' trial on Saturday - he is a very smart individual who is 2000 Guineas' bound.

The other two winners were fillies - Swing Note, an Encosta de Lago filly that I bought last January on the Gold Coast for A$60,000.  Our daughter Julia-Rose bought her fiance Hamish a share in this filly as his birthday present last year and Swing Note is his first ever winner so there was a lot of excitement in the household.  Tiffany's Time, another filly I bought but this time at Karaka, claimed the last race in good fashion.

So the team is really on fire on the countdown to NZ Cup Week which kicks off with the Group 1 NZ 2000 Guineas (a race we have won five times in the past 14 years) on 11 November.  We will be sending more horses South in the next 10 days.

If you live in Christchurch and would like to have a share in a horse with the stable that has won more Group 1 races at Riccarton than any other stable in the last 50 years, then please give me a call on 07 825 4701 or email Karyn at [email protected] - we have many wonderful South Island owners and with the Ready to Run Sale coming up, it's a great time to invest. I certainly will be on the hunt for another Gingernuts and Hall of Fame.

Today we have some really promising young two year olds heading to Ruakaka to trial on better footing and we will have an update on their trials later today on the website for your interest:

WEAPONRY
PUBLICIST
HANDSOME REBEL
IN A TWINKLING
BYZANTINE
AL HASA

Have a great week and please hope for some sunshine!