Te Akau Tuesday Update
1 May, 2018
David writes:
It was another huge weekend for Te Akau Racing, starting in Singapore on Friday night with our Te Akau Singapore trainer Mark Walker winning two races including a $500,000 Group 2 race with a Darci Brahma gelding that I bought from the Karaka Premier Sale for $100,000. Straight after this victory, Mark was back in the winner's circle the very next race making it two wins for the night.
Then the next day, the winning continued when we started a two year old that I bought from the Ready to Run Sale last November. Total Excess is a Delago Deluxe gelding and he won his first start for a great team of owners. Then our attention turned to Te Rapa and it was black type win number 17 for Te Akau for the season with Our Abbadean winning the Group 2 Travis Stakes. So our New Zealand team also enjoyed a winning double, although the two wins came at two venues.
That makes TWO Group 2 wins in the space of 12 hours - I am very proud of the whole team with 17 Group and Listed wins in New Zealand for the season as this breaks our previous season's best record of 15 stakes' wins in a season.
The racing team at Te Akau Racing is quite small now with winter on the horizon. We now look to spend quality time educating our young horses. You only win races with two and three year olds if your horses are well educated and this is an area that we really concentrate on and spend a lot of time on. You have to teach young horses the right skills to set them up for a successful future.
The five fillies we bought at the Sydney Sale are all being broken in and are now being ridden at Te Akau Stud. Gee they are a simply amazing group of horses with beautiful pedigrees and by exciting sires. Shares are selling quickly so if you want some excitement in your life, then treat yourself and have some fun. I can guarantee you will have fun and excitement and these horses will do well so in six months' time, don't blame me if you see one or more of these fillies wining Group races!
This week we have the topdressing plane putting lime on the farm so, when I woke up at 3am and we were getting steady rain (12mls), the farmer from Te Akau was a very happy man! We are lucky that we have an all weather airstrip at Te Akau Stud so rain means my strip is the only one in this area that can be used today.
Today we are sending a number of horses bank into work that have been out spelling. Yesterday we sent seven back to Matamata including Melody Belle and Te Akau Shark and I was just blown away with how they looked. I am predicting a big season for them both.
Meanwhile Karyn is having a wonderful time in London with our daughter Lydia and her partner Jamie and tomorrow they will go to Ascot racecourse to see our horse Torcedor run in a Group race.