Te Akau Tuesday Update

David writes:

I have to say, there was a massive smile this morning on the
farmer's face here at Te Akau Stud.

And the reason why, is because we got 20mls of beautiful, warm rain in the last 24 hours - you can absolutely see the grass bolting.

After four heavy frosts in a row, you would normally not have any growth until the rain comes but with a temperature today of 19 degrees, you can just see the grass is growing.

I always find it interesting the number of people who come up to me at the races and say how much they enjoy hearing about the farm from these updates.

Well, in our farm news, I can tell you that on Monday we sent our final lamb draft to the works and they weighed out at 20.7kgs, which is an outstanding result for tail-end lambs. That made them worth just over $142 each - this was another
reason to celebrate a great start to the week!

Tomorrow we are having a quiet lunch at Te Akau Stud to celebrate both our Karaka Million winners, Cool Aza Beel and Probabeel. We will also be celebrating the fact that Probabeel is the first racehorse to ever win back-to-back Karaka Million dollar races as a 2YO and 3YO. It has been an incredible season!

We actually have the trainer and jockey trophies here at the farm for Jamie and Opie for these races, as well as the Group 1 Bonecrusher Stakes won by Avantage and the Group 1 Sistema Stakes win by Cool Aza Beel - so those two will need a trailer!

I was actually asked this morning by a friend what the highlight of the season would be for me and it didn't take me long to explain that there were several moments that have made 2019/2020 just unbelievable.

Melody Belle becoming the first horse ever to win the Hawkes' Bay Group 1 Triple Crown was something very special - I bought her for $57,500 and she has now earned $3.56 million, with 15 wins from her 30 starts. That's some strike rate - and remarkably she has won 10 Group 1 races in that tally of 15 victories.

To start 2020 winning both the Karaka Million-dollar races was as big a thrill that you could ever get.

Another memorable day came on 29 February - we won a Listed race with Star of Bombay, followed by Probabeel and Te Akau Shark bolting in with two Group 1 victories within half an hour of each other at Royal Randwick in Sydney - that surely was a day that I will never forget.

We then backed up the following Saturday at Ellerslie, winning two Group 1 races within an hour with Avantage and Cool Aza Beel.

These were moments that brought tears to my eyes. It is something extremely hard to achieve, and when it does happen it is an incredibly emotional feeling. The pride I feel in our whole team really is so hard to put in to words.

In total this season (until March 2020) Te Akau has won 11 Group 1 races - an incredible training effort from Jamie and our team.

For me, one training performance that stood out for Jamie this season was with Avantage: she won the Group 1 Telegraph over 1200m and then went on to win the Group 1 Otaki-Maori Haunui Farm over 1600m, culminating in her outstanding win in the Group 1 Bonecrusher Stakes at Ellerslie over 2000m - and all in the space of just SEVEN weeks (with a courageous 4th in the Group 1 BCD Sprint (1400m) behind Te Akau Shark at Otaki too). 

Avantage has now won Group 1 races at 1200m, 1400m, 1600m and 2000m - that is some achievement.

We have just about broken in all the yearlings now and I am confident that we have nailed it. We have got a beautiful bunch of young horses to train for next season.

Te Akau Stud Equine Manager and Head Breaker Enzo Di Leoni Ferrari has done a fantastic breaking these young horses in with his team. He is such a gifted horseman and he has been very ably supported by Deane Lowcay, Stephanie Hyde-Richards and Ailish Greene. I am in awe of the job they have done - they are four very gifted horsemen and horsewomen, and we are very lucky to have them here at the stud.

Only just over four weeks until racing starts and that is really giving us something to look forward to - I am very much counting down the days! Of course there will be plenty of trials to keep everyone busy in between!

Have a great week everyone, and as always ...

GO THE TANGERINE!  

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