Te Akau Tuesday Update
9 November, 2021
David writes:
What a great day it was on Saturday!
My beautiful wife Karyn turned 60 on Saturday (who I must say doesn't look a day over 35, how does this beautiful woman never age!?) and we celebrated in classic style by winning the 2000 Guineas with our very exciting Savabeel colt, Noverre. What an amazing birthday present! It will certainly be one to remember - our 7th Group 1 NZ 2000 Guineas' victory.
I was quite emotional after the win as I knew the sacrifices that our stable jockey, Opie Bosson has made to get back in the saddle and to ride this colt.
Opie relocated and upon his return to riding, we used to train every day in my gym before he took the final relocation step to Matamata. As motivation, we would replay Noverre's lead up races while we trained. It is incredible what jockeys have to put their bodies through to ride race day. Opie had to drop to 56kg to ride, and to win a Group 1 only on his third day back riding was such a huge thrill.
Another jockey I have been very impressed by is the South Island's Jason Laking. He is a hardworking man who regularly drives from Ashburton to Riccarton to ride track work for us. He rode Noverre in the colt's lead up win in the Group 3 War Decree Stakes and that was a 10 out of 10 ride. Thank you Jason, your hard work and commitment has not gone unnoticed and we are all very appreciative of your dedication to our team.
What a job our Assistant Trainer Sam Bergerson, Lydia Truesdale, Sumeet Pillay and whole Christchurch based Te Akau team have done - we know they were over the moon with Noverre's big race win - and are all set for a big day on Wednesday and this Saturday too.
At Te Akau, we are preparing for another weekend of action-packed racing!
This Saturday, we have five fillies lining up in the Group 1 NZ 1000 Guineas - a race we have won five times previously. Imperatriz will be ridden by Danielle Johnson, The Perfect Pink has Opie Bosson aboard, Irish Red will be partnered by Jason Laking, Belle En Rouge with Michael McNab engaged and Shepherd's Delight will have Sam Wynne up.
What an incredible line up of horses and jockeys alike - their successes on the racetrack need very little introduction.
We intend to have a total of eight runners at Riccarton on Saturday. I remember last year we won half the card on Cup Day so here's hoping for a 'grande finale' to Cup Week again!
I can't remember a time that I haven't attended Cup Week, and I have to say it is quite a weird feeling not being on course. Karyn said to me the other day, she has only missed the meeting once in about 20 years when she had to attend a Jaycee World Congress, so it's a strange feeling for us for sure. Nevertheless, we will be cheering on our team down the straight from home.
One of our major disappointments was also having to postpone our South Island Owners' event, which is a catch up we always look forward to. Once we have some clarity about what we can and cannot do due to COVID restrictions, we will reschedule that for certain.
Noverre's win on Saturday was our 12th Group 1 Guineas win at Riccarton over the last 18 years. Te Akau Racing was won seven 2000 Guineas races and five 1000 Guineas races, with Kings Chapel starting the tally in 2003. He won the 2000 Guineas in 2003 in a very similar fashion to Noverre - with Opie Bosson aboard, they travelled out wide and bolted in clear by two lengths. The race was sponsored in those days by Coupland's Bakeries and of course Ray and Jill Coupland now sponsor the Group 2 Coupland's Bakeries Mile.
Reflecting on another past Te Akau Group 1 winner of whom we are super proud - it is interesting to note that Heroic Valour (unbeaten as a two year old, pictured below) who now stands at Raheen Stud in Australia, only ran third in the same race and he has made a very exciting start to his stud career. He has had three winners from his first four two year old runners already.
Noverre is a colt who has an incredibly exciting future ahead of him, and we are very much looking forward to his next start.
It is a really great time of the year for racing fans across the codes, and today we wish our very good friend, Mark Purdon all the very best of luck in the New Zealand Cup at Addington Raceway.
Talking about friends, what an incredible week jockey James McDonald had at Flemington!? James has won ten races across the week, including the Melbourne Cup. It was such a beautiful ride from James and what a great mare Verry Elleegant is.
It was a total whitewash for New Zealand: with ex-pat Chris Waller training the Kiwi bred mare. It certainly was an extremely proud day for us all at Te Akau Stud as New Zealanders.
Yesterday we had our first mare and foal arrive home to the farm. Fashion Forward came home with her ripper of a colt by Darci Brahma, whom she is safely in-foal to again this season.
We have been so impressed by the first crop of yearlings we have by Embellish that this season we have sent five mares to him. We can't wait to see his progeny hit the tracks.
We have only good news on the farming front. We had 15mls of rain over the weekend and have had extremely great grass growth this spring. We are currently in the process of selling cattle, with a truck and trailer unit of steers leaving the farm every second day. Next week we are having our first lamb draft, and gee, we have some beautiful fat lambs ready to go.
Best of luck to all our owners with runners this week, go the good guys and ...