Te Akau Tuesday Update

David writes:

I hope all our owners and friends have had as great a Christmas time as Karyn and I did. We were surrounded by our family, and it was a day full of delicious food, fantastic beverages and plenty of laughter. 

However, the celebrations didn't stop at Christmas Day, as the Boxing Day Races at Ellerslie were a huge success for Te Akau Racing. One of our very best days ever.

The track was prepared to perfection. The team at Ellerslie very sensibly put 4mls of water on the track on Christmas Day, which meant that the 2YO horses that ran that day will be able to line up for the Karaka Million on 23 January and won't be in the paddock with shin-soreness or being jarred up. 

I have always felt that one of the most important aspects about preparing tracks is that you want to prepare a track where horses can carry on racing in two, for or even six weeks' time. In this case, then to still be sound for the Auckland Cup Week. 

Boxing day at Ellerslie started off with a great second from Star of Bombay in the first race, and from race three onwards, we won six races in a row. 

Three of these races were stakes' races too - Amarelinha was classy at only start three in winning the Group 2 Eight Carat Classic, Brando was impressive in claiming the Listed Uncle Remus Stakes and Vamos Bebe secured her exciting future broodmare prospects for the team at Trelawney Stud when victorious in the Listed Hallmark Stud Stakes.

We were proud to win the Hallmark Stud Stakes and the Stella Artois Championship Final for great supporters of the stable - Brent, Cherry and Faith Taylor of Trelawney Stud and also the Hawkins' family of Wentwood Grange, respectively.

This brings Jamie's tally of Group/Listed wins this year to 15 - 13 in New Zealand plus Probabeel's Group 1 and Group 3 success in Australia.

That was the 50^th Boxing Day meeting that I have been to, and I am so proud to say that over those 50 years of attendance, no stable has won six races on the card.  In fact we are being told that no stable has ever achieved this feat at this meeting.

It was an unbelievable thrill for Karyn and me, and I am just so happy for all our owners who were part of this huge success. Even for horses that ran second or third, as In A Twinkling was in the Group 1 Zabeel Classic, I can see that their fortunes will change very shortly.

It was a terrific atmosphere at Ellerslie. There was a massive crowd, and it was great to see so many people at the races.  Another interesting statistic was Te Akau's stable jockey Opie Bosson and Danielle Johnson won eight of the ten races at Ellerslie on Boxing Day. 

Due to his weight, Opie probably won't win the Jockey Premiership, as he just can't take the rides that lightweight jockeys can. However, he has still won the most black type races and his strike rate is just unbelievable - it is sitting at 3.5. 

With another two races won at Rotorua on Monday, Jamie has now trained 80 winners in the first five months of the season. Those two Rotorua wins also came for other strong supporters of Te Akau - Sir Peter Vela of Pencarrow Stud's stakes' winning mare Lilikoi and win 80 arrived courtesy of Brendan and Jo Lindsay of Cambridge Stud's mare Get Hitched.

Congratulations to Jamie and to all our team who have worked incredibly hard, yet all with a smile on their faces, to bring out these amazing results that we are achieving for our owners.

Of course we are very proud to be the first stable in the country to pass the $2 million in stakes' earnings in New Zealand for our owners - with nearly another A$1 million in Australia - that's $3 million - with another $2 million plus in our Singapore stable this season too! So just over $5 million!

Every spare minute of each day, my catalogue is in my hand as I study as much as possible for the upcoming Karaka Yearling Sale which gets underway on 24 January.

We are determined to purchase more good horses for our owners. I have now seen close to half of the yearlings in the sale already, and I can tell you that the quality this year is very high. There are going to be some particularly good horses that come out of this sale, that is for certain. 

The next two months see some very exciting racing in New Zealand, with the Trentham Carnival, then Karaka Million Twilight meeting which then leads into Te Rapa's big dual Group 1 and Group 2 Legends' Day and before you know it, it's the Barfoot and Thompson Auckland Cup Carnival back at Ellerslie. This is definitely my favourite time of the year.

Today I am spending the day at Te Akau Stud, which will see me go around and inspect every horse that is spelling. It is a great time of the year to have horses in the spelling paddocks, as the grass is still very high quality, and the long warm days are when the horses really thrive. 

Karyn and I are really looking forward to the New Year Day races at Ellerslie where we have another good line-up in the tangerine - we hope to see you there! 

Please be safe over the holiday period and best of luck to all our owners who have runners over the next week and ...

GO THE TANGERINE!!

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