Te Akau Weekend Update

David writes:

It's the time of year when most people sit back and relax, head away on holiday and spend a lot of time re-charging their batteries.  In the racing world, it is quite the opposite.  The festive season is one of our busiest times of the year!  I always smile when new people we meet ask us where we are heading off to for the holidays!

During these weeks we race almost every day with trials and lots of other commitments keeping our team very busy!  I will be re-starting my yearling inspections again next week and then we will be full on until the Karaka Sale gets underway at the end of January.

The farm team is also very busy with the spelling horses, the broodmares and handling all of our foals (who are a delight to watch - gosh we have some stunning youngsters by Rock 'n' Pop, Burgundy and Darci Brahma).

We had a quiet but really enjoyable Christmas Day at home on the farm and I was again in charge of turkey and lunch duties.  We dined about 2.30pm, a very relaxed affair as Karyn had The First Call on Boxing Day so had to leave the farm around 6am the next morning.

Boxing Day was a fun day and whilst we didn't celebrate a winner, we saw some very good performances - No Tricks certainly would have won if Matt hadn't lost his whip but these things happen unfortunately and you turn the page and look forward to the next start.  This is a very good Savabeel filly who will win black type for sure.  She is raced by Paul and Cushla Smithies who also race NZ Derby winner Puccini.

After the races we had dinner in Auckland with some close friends and family and although it was a bit of a late night (!!) it was plenty of fun.  The next day - Saturday - back to the farm and back to work.  The queues of traffic coming south out of Auckland were diabolical.  Luckily Karyn and Robyn were ahead of me and after I received their call (it took them double the time to get home) I was able to take a few short cuts!

Back on the farm now and it looks a picture.  We had some lovely soft, warm rain last night which was a big plus.

Our winning form was right back in play on Saturday as we celebrated not one, not two but THREE winners at Rotorua.  Each one was of course ridden by our stable rider Matthew Cameron so it was terrific to see both Jason and Matt continue to make their presence felt on their respective premierships.  Jason lies in fourth position with 25 wins and Matt lies in second place, five behind Danielle Johnson with 58 wins thus far.

You will have read the stories on each winner - Arpeggio (bred and raced by Sir Peter Vela) is a special filly.  I, and then Mark Walker, trained her mother Macchiato.  I always remember that Jim Collett who was to ride her was offered another mount in the same race and said "no way am I getting off Macchiato - she wins".  Well she was beaten by a lip by that other horse - who turned out to be Ethereal!

Our second winner was La Adelita who is raced by three close friends who have something very special in common.  The first is this High Chaparral mare's breeder Justice Dame Lowell Goddard who was recognised with her Damehood this year in the Queen's Birthday Honours.  Sir Peter Vela and Karyn are her racing partners and of course they both received their Queen's Honours this time last year - so it has been a big year for this trio.  This is a mare we have patiently handled and she will definitely win more races.  She is also a sister to the smart 2YO Rocanto who steps out in the Eclipse Stakes on New Year's Day at Ellerslie up against our juvenile star Windborne.

Finally it was the turn of a horse we have had to work hard with, since receiving him to train.  Another by Savabeel, Star of Greenbeel had some manners' issues but Jason and Tommy have sorted these out and he was a gutsy debutante winner late yesterday afternoon.

Well done to the whole team, a top result - a winning treble!  It is a team effort and everyone is very busy and committed to our summer racing assignments - so thank you!

I am leaving now to head to Ellerslie and am looking forward to seeing Madame Jamais bringing her good South Island form north and also Imperium - he is Derby bound so today is an important stepping stone towards that target.  Bred to be good, by Encosta de Lago out of Ethereal, he is really developing into a lovely staying type.

Tonight the weber will be lit and plenty of fun guaranteed as James McDonald and Opie Bosson are coming to stay at the farm - both have been apprentices and stable riders for me and I am really looking forward to catching up with them both.