Te Akau Tuesday Update

David writes:

It was another great weekend of racing for Te Akau!  Both in new Zealand and in Singapore.

In New Zealand, we had a terrific day of racing at Te Rapa. We quinella-ed the Group 3 Cambridge Stud Northern Breeders' Stakes with unbeaten I Am Invincible filly Imperatriz and another very good horse called I Wish I Win, who is owned by our friends at Waikato Stud.

Imperatriz has won three races from only three starts, including the Group 2 Eclipse Stakes at her last start in January.  It was quite remarkable that she was the very last yearling to sell last year. Imperatriz is well on her way to becoming a top filly in our stable.

It was also great to also see Pure Imagination win at Te Rapa on debut on Saturday. He is a Darci Brahma colt that I purchased from the Ready to Run sale last year and he looks to have plenty of upside for the future.

Later on Saturday it was the turn of our Singapore stable and yet another win for our trainer Mark Walker at Kranji.  It was an impressive effort by a Sebring 4YO called Reignite that was purchased and syndicated by my wife Karyn.  Not only did the horse win by many lengths (in the hands of our former apprentice Shafiq Rusof) he also smashed the class record in doing so.

Reignite was Mark's 50th winner for the Singapore season which runs until the end of November.  Mark leads the Trainers' Premiership as he attempts to add a fourth title to his Singapore resume, to join the five Trainers' Premiership titles he claimed in New Zealand.

We love getting these results for our owners!  Achieving results like these for our owners is what keeps me going. It is such a thrill to see how much fun and joy our owners are having when their horses perform well.

As you will know, we have a team currently in Melbourne (with Ashley Handley) and Sydney (with Paul Richards). Under their on-site care and diligence, our team there is really thriving, as could be seen from Probabeel's fresh up win in the Group 3 WW Cockram Stakes the weekend before last.  Sydney's Champion Jockey and former Te Akau stable rider James McDonald, told me this morning that Entriviere looked and felt absolutely fantastic when he galloped her today. We are all looking forward to her having her first start of the season this weekend in Sydney - fingers crossed that we might finally have the barrier gods on our si

We also now have our South Island stable fully operational, with 11 horses currently based there and a few more set to head down in the next week.  Sam Bergerson, Te Akau's Assistant Trainer, will be travelling south shortly to join the Christchurch-based team.

One of the things that I really like about having horses in the South Island during the Spring is that you tend to have the much better tracks. The track at Ashburton on Monday was just beautiful and they don't get anything like the rainfall that we get in Waikato during the Spring season.

Speaking of rainfall, we haven't had any rain at Te Akau for just over a week and at this time of the year, especially to keep the grass growing, you need rain on a regular basis. It started to rain very steadily at Te Akau Stud this morning which made me very happy and it's looking to set in for the rest of the week.

We took advantage of the fine day yesterday and had our second full day of docking. I am pleased to report that the percentage of ewes with lambs docked yesterday was about 155 percent, which is really encouraging.  I love this time of the year - you can see the grass beginning to blow out of the ground and the cattle are beginning to lose their winter coats. They are just thriving! We will start selling cattle in about three weeks' time.

Over the last few days, I have been spending a lot of time going over the pedigrees for the upcoming Ready to Run Sale horses, which I am really looking forward to attending.  This sale is held in November at the Karaka Sales Complex and if you would like to be involved with Te Akau Racing and are interested in purchasing a share, now is the time to get in contact with me.

Te Akau has had a lot of success with horses purchased from this sale, including three-time Group 1 winner Gingernuts who won the NZ Derby as well as the Rosehill Guineas; Te Akau Shark, a dual Group 1 winner in New Zealand and Australia; Hall of Fame, the Group 1 Levin Classic winner, and Brando who was runner up in that same Group 1 earlier this year and who has trialled impressively - and is looking to have a brilliant season ahead.

Today is the birthday of our very good family friend, Sam Boyd. Sam helped me at Te Akau Stud for just over 34 years before retiring to Great Barrier Island. After speaking with him today, I thought it was incredibly interesting that even though Great Barrier Island has not had one single case of Covid 19, they are still in Level 4 restrictions.

Sam called me last week to tell me that he had an excellent round of golf, which saw him complete his round in 73. How good is that!? Great effort Sam, and great to see that you are still keeping fit!  Many happy returns of the day!

In other news - I have been regularly asked when the new season of 'Weigh In' is set to start. We are just waiting for the broadcast studio in Auckland to reopen, as under Level 4 Covid restrictions it closed as it is not deemed an 'essential service'. We do have a date tentatively set and we hope to be in production after the first Group 1 of the season, which is Saturday week at Hawkes' Bay. Fingers crossed!!!

I know we are all really missing Raceform being published on a weekly basis. Again, due to lockdown restrictions, it has not been able to be printed but I believe it will be back in circulation this week. I really enjoy this brilliant publication and it's a credit to Don Hancock, Editor Liz Whelan, Dennis Ryan and the whole team.

Without fail, Raceform arrives at Te Akau Stud hot off the press every Thursday morning - we actually get two copies as Karyn and I both want to read it at the same times! Raceform has terrific editorials about all aspects of our industry, and I love being able to study the fields for all the meetings in New Zealand and Australia, as well as the trackwork.

Raceform replaced the void that was left from the old Race Track, Turf Digest or Friday Flash publications. If you would like to subscribe, call 0800 504 704 - I highly recommend getting a subscription. You won't be disappointed.

One person I do feel hugely disappointed for however is our stable rider Opie Bosson. Opie was in the best shape of his life coming into this new season. He was the fittest he had ever been and was the lightest he had weighed in over 20 years.

He was ready to go, but at the last-minute Opie was informed that his farm in Pukekawa was under the Auckland Covid Restrictions' boundary - which was not the case last lockdown. It is so hard for an athlete like Opie to prepare and become so fit and then be unable to execute their plan and their employment. Being unable to ride also greatly impacts his livelihood, which is just so frustrating for him and his lovely family.

Keep your chin up, Opie. It won't be long until we have you back riding trackwork and on race day, and when you do, you are going to really nail it. I have no doubt about that.

Have a good week everyone and best of luck to all our owners with runners.

PS - the editor adds the the plaster cast came off David's leg yesterday, replaced by a moon-boot so he is very much on the move!!