Te Akau Tuesday Update

David writes:

Karyn and I had a pretty busy weekend.  Saturday started with the Te Rapa races which we both attended,  Karyn in her role as Chairman of the Club after her television commitments.  Then we drove to Auckland for my eldest daughter Joanna's engagement party.

Jo and Leon chose a terrific venue in downtown Auckland at the Victoria Markets called Tom Tom's (no Karyn not named after your beloved canine!!)  and what a really nice bar it was. It was also great to see so many of the family that I seldom see these days. It was nice to have a chat with them.

We left the drinks' party at 9pm and Karyn and I went out and had a nice dinner together and before we knew what time it was, it was 2.30am.

On Sunday I had a nice relaxing day in Auckland and took two of my four daughters and their boyfriends to Soul Bar for lunch.

I then had a nice evening watching the Singapore races.  Mark won yet another race with Fiscal Wings.  This has been a most disappointing horse who has shown some ability however with the great stakes in Singapore he has still won $90,000.  An incredible result for a disappointing horse.  In New Zealand this horse would have earned perhaps $10,000 in stake money.

On Sunday night I stayed in Auckland and was out grocery shopping as the next few weeks have a lot of visitors coming to stay. Next week we have Sam Boyd and Dave McCarthy coming to stay and the following week we have Mark Walker back from Singapore for the week and then we are off to the sales on the Gold Coast.

Today I have the bank manager Mark Walsh coming for a visit along with the area manager Richard Spittles.  I have been with the ASB for a long time and have an excellent association with them.  They are an excellent bank with a really good understanding of rural problems.  In fact recently I was asked to address a meeting of their senior national managers and was most impressed with the calibre of the people there.

I also have some clients coming from Hong Kong including Gary Lui who is an airline pilot with Cathay Pacific.  Gary loves his horse racing and has shares in seven horses with me, five of which we are going to ride this afternoon to show him how they are being broken in. Tomorrow I am taking them to Matamata to see the horses that we have in work in Matamata.

On Thursday we are having a function for the owners of the four colts' syndicate.  We are going to work the horses on the airstrip to show the owners how they have broken in and how they are progressing.

Last night we sold the last share in the Pins/Laurinel Princess colt. It sometimes fascinates me to see how some horses sell quicker than others.  This is a classic example of a particularly attractive colt that initially nobody wanted to take a share in but he is now all sold. He was great value for money and I wish all the owners in him the best of luck. We also sold a share in the Iffraaj/Newgrange filly so there is only a 5% share remaining in her.

To all our owners who have taken shares in these beautiful yearlings - thank you for your support which we greatly appreciate and we wish you all the very best of luck.  We hope these horses turn out to be champions for you.

We had 10mls of rain on the farm last night and it is just amazing how that has freshened the grass up and it is really growing at the moment. The forecast is to be 21 degrees today so we are really going to get some grass growth.

Karyn drove to Hamilton yesterday en route to Wellington only to find her flight cancelled - so it was another big drive to Auckland for a revised flight schedule.  She is attending her first meeting as a member of the Arts' Council of New Zealand which the government appointed her to earlier this year.