Te Akau Tuesday Update
5 October, 2021
David writes:
It was another busy weekend for the team in both New Zealand and Singapore - including another winning double for Te Akau Singapore trainer Mark Walker. This sees Mark with a 7-win lead on the Trainers' Premiership with only seven race meetings remaining for the season. Mark has recorded 57 wins for the season with a huge 64 runners-up and 55 third place-getters.
In New Zealand we also won two races - with Brando opening the weekend, resuming in fine fashion at Te Rapa and Seajetz signing off the weekend in winning style at the Great Northern meeting staged at Te Aroha. I was very pleased to see Brando back in winning form and I thought he showed a terrific will to win in his first start for a long while. Seajetz also went a super race at Te Aroha, now three wins for three starts there.
We also had some very encouraging weekend performances in New Zealand with "next-up" written all over them. Noverre and Prise De Fer ran top class races to finish runner up in their events, the Guineas' Trial at Riccarton and the Group 1 Windsor Park Plate at Hastings respectively. Watch out for them both next start! Now the winner of $366,575, Prise De Fer will head to the final day at Hastings where he will run in the Group 1 Livamol Classic. The Group 1 NZ 2000 Guineas is an obvious target for Noverre.
Te Akau Racing is now third on the New Zealand Trainers' Premiership at this very early stage of the season. However we are leading in terms of stake money won for our owners.
So the next month is going to be very exciting. It's only another two weeks until we start getting better tracks in the north , which is normally around 20 October.
The farm is looking absolutely beautiful - plenty of lush, green grass. Last week I bought a truck and trailer of yearling steers from Canterbury. It was incredible what good buying they were compared to the North Island, even taking the freight in to account.
Yesterday was exciting for a couple of reasons - firstly it got to 21 degrees at Te Akau Stud in the afternoon - and after 15 mls of rain in the morning, that certainly leads to grass growth! However even more exciting (is that even possible? - Ed) was going to my surgeon who had operated on my foot! He gave me the all clear to start training in the gym again, easing in to it. That was such terrific news, it really made my day.
As we all know, Raglan has seen a few cases of COVID and even though we are distant from that town, over rural terrain and about 45 minutes away, the farming area of Te Akau ended up being included in the the new Level 3 restrictions placed on the Waikato. It is very frustrating and while we understand the need for caution, we are all double jabbed and keen to get on with business as usual. Mind you, we are not in Auckland and we all know how tough it is for so many people and businesses there that are trying to survive their extended lock-down.
We are all looking forward to watching the Australian races this weekend - and it's a big one! At Royal Randwick in Sydney, we will have Amarelinha, our NZB Filly of the Year, contesting the Group 3 Angst Stakes with James McDonald aboard. Our other Group 1 winner Sword of State also steps out in the Group 2 Roman Consul Stakes and will be ridden by Tim Clarke. Meantime in Melbourne, Probabeel will contest the Group 1 Might & Power Stakes at Caulfield while Kahma Lass has a couple of stakes' race options lined up on that programme.
The team's weekend will get underway though at Timaru in South Canterbury on Friday and then we race 'at home' at Matamata on Saturday. Please note that both of these meetings will be staged 'behind closed doors' so owners, sponsors or the public are not able to attend due to COVID restrictions and considerations.
There was another highlight over the weekend too - a big thrill for Karyn and me when the very first Heroic Valour two year old to race won on debut at Doomben in Queensland. Heroic Valour was bought by me at the Karaka Sale for $400,000 and was the first Group 1 winning two year old anywhere in the world for his sire Fastnet Rock. When his racing career concluded, he was sold to Raheen Stud in Queensland, owned by Basil Nolan. I have been incredibly impressed with the progeny of Heroic Valour and I think he is a huge chance at stud.
Have a great week - and good luck to all our owners who have runners in coming days ...