Te Akau Tuesday Update

 

David writes:

 

The team here at Te Akau Stud is really looking forward to our four Gold Coast yearlings arriving home on Friday.

They have been transported from the Gold Coast to Sydney and are flying over to New Zealand on Thursday night.

I just can't believe that there are now only shares available in just one of the four yearlings that I purchased, and that is the So You Think colt. I truly mean it when I say do not hesitate if you are interested in taking a share!

This colt is a cracker of yearling! We originally anticipated that he was going to make AUD$300,000 on the Gold Coast and we bought him for only AUD$165,000. This is excellent buying for a colt of this quality.

 

 

He has a great pedigree which can be traced back to some of the best horses that have ever raced in New Zealand, including Valencia who won the Railway Handicap and Vice Regal, who was not only a great racehorse but a very good sire.

There are only two shares available in this colt and if you would like to be involved, I would suggest contacting Karyn straight away to avoid any disappointment.

 

 

These four yearlings will begin being broken in as soon as they arrive home to the farm.

Today, I would like congratulate the Auckland Racing Club. I have been a member of this club since 1974 and I don't believe it has ever been in better hands.

We have had spectacular success at Ellerslie over the years and have won many stakes' races there, including the following successes this season: Brando took out the Listed Uncle Remus Stakes over 1400m, while Amarelinha won the Group 2 Eight Carat Classic and the Group 3 Sunline Vase, while Avantage won the Group 1 Railway Handicap.

Need I Say More also took out the Listed Mufhasa Stakes and the Group 3 Almanzor Trophy and Melody Belle claimed the Group 1 Bonecrusher Stakes. Sword of State won the Group 1 Sistema Stakes, Savy Yong Blonk took out the Group 3 City of Auckland Cup and On The Bubbles won the Karaka 2YO Million race. Entriviere won the Group 3 Concord Handicap as well as the Group 3 King's Plate, while Imperatriz took out the Group 2 Eclipse Stakes at only her second start.

 

That is a total of 13 Black Type races that we have won at Ellerslie this season alone.
It is quite a remarkable effort from Jamie Richards and our team.

 

It is also great to see that every winner for the 2020/2021 Ellerslie Season Awards announced on Saturday came from Matamata. Ellerslie Horse of the Year went to Rocket Spade who was beautifully trained by Lance O'Sullivan and Andrew Scott, while every other award was won by Team Te Akau.

Congratulations to Joe Kamaruddin, who was named Apprentice Jockey of the Year while Te Akau Stable jockeys Opie Bosson and Troy Harris were tied for Ellerslie Jockey of the Year honours.  Ellerslie Trainer of the Year was awarded to our own Jamie Richards and Ellerslie Performance of the Year (public vote) was presented to none other than the ‘Queen' herself, Melody Belle.

 

 

This long weekend, Karyn and I had a relaxing few days on the farm. It was quite refreshing being at home, especially after the being away on the Gold Coast for the Magic Million sales.

We only have two more units (truck and trailers) of prime ox to sell. We sell all our cattle to Greenlea and have done so for many years.  We had a unit leave the farm yesterday and I predict that these steers will kill out at 325-330kgs. This will leave only one more unit which will go either Thursday or Friday this week.

All our stock is bought and sold by Alan Radford, who has completed all my buying and selling since 1979. This year I got a special thrill when Alan told me that he wanted to invest in two nice yearlings. Alan came into a Darci Brahma filly as well as the Spirit of Boom filly - both who have very exciting futures ahead of them.

The amount of grass on the farm is quite amazing. Despite the rest of the country having wild weather, it has been very mild here at Te Akau Stud. It has been a fantastic growing autumn and the stock are all in terrific condition - this is a great situation for the Te Akau Farmer to be in, especially now that we are in our first month of winter.

For the first time in a very long time, we have empty boxes in the stable at Matamata. This is due to our horses being given a decent spell before they come back into work over the next ten days. The stable is set to be full again in two weeks' time in preparation for the new season ahead.

Yesterday, I took the cover off a couple of horses who were spelling at the farm, and I am so pleased at how well they have done.

While we don't have many horses racing at the moment, it certainly has been a busy time educating all these young horses. Here at the stud, we have last three New Zealand purchased colts who are nearly finished being broken in - we are looking forward to sending these yearlings into the stables. We have a Preferment colt that we purchased from the South Island, a Shamexpress colt from the Windsor Park Sale and the last yearling from the Karaka Sales, a Savabeel colt who we hope to have them in the stable in the next week or so, and then we will start on the four yearlings from the Magic Millions.

I have absolutely no doubt that we have bought a vintage crop of rising 2YO sand I just can't wait to see them at the trials starting in August.

We have so much to look forward to in the new season, I hope you are all excited by it just as much as I am.

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