Te Akau Weekend Update

David writes:

It's been a full on week at Te Akau!

On Thursday we looked at the Waikato Stud draft of yearlings and on Friday it was the turn of Windsor Park Stud.  It certainly is an exciting time of the year - I just love seeing all of the young horses, our future champions!  I truly enjoy buying young horses that I am proud to have in our stable.

This week we had 18mls of rain at Te Akau Stud which is enough to keep the farm nice and green.  I now have all of my horse paddocks ready for the yearlings that we are going to buy.  These paddocks have been chewed out with sheep and are in beautiful condition, just waiting for the yearlings to arrive.

On Tuesday my vet Dr Douglas Black, Jamie Richards and I will attend the Magic Millions' sale on the Gold Coast.  I bought some lovely young horses there last year including Gold Fever who has already won and was a close up third in the Group 3 Eclipse Stakes on New Year's Day at Ellerslie, earning valuable black type already this early in her career.

Last night it was great to see Miss Waimataitai win for Mark in Singapore - she can be a fractious and unpredictable mare with a mind of her own but she has ability if she puts her mind on the job!  She was bred at Te Akau Stud by Aussie and Leslie Browne and Karyn, together with Steve Turner, Aaron Jones and Des Radford.  Leslie named her after the primary school that was attended by both her and by Karyn.  She has now won a race, been runner up twice and third on six occasions, earning just over $60,000 to date.

This morning I spent three hours on the farm and now Karyn and I are spending the rest of the afternoon in the office.

Isn't it disappointing that we have no race meeting in the northern region today?  So if we wanted to race a horse this weekend (bearing in mind the vast majority of the horse population resides in the Waikato-north), we either had to travel all the way to Ruakaka yesterday or Trentham today.

With the Karaka Million just three weeks away, wouldn't you think that there would be a meeting on Saturday in the north with a 2YO event programmed - rather than having to travel a young horse at considerable cost, all the way to Ruakaka and for a $7000 stake.  It is obvious to me that the people who are making these decisions don't race horses.  I bet they couldn't even tell me how much it costs to travel from Matamata to Ruakaka or Trentham.

However we also need to think that in six weeks' time we have the Group 2 Matamata Breeders' Stakes and Listed Matamata Slipper for 2YOs, both very important lead up races for events such as the Group 1 Diamond Stakes at Ellerslie and the Group 1 Manawatu Sires' Produce Stakes.  With that in mind, can you believe that there is not even a 2YO race at Matamata next week for trainers to give their young horses a run on that track - another example of how NZ Thoroughbred Racing doesn't listen to the people that 'put the show on'!

Change needs to happen!

It was great seeing Smashing run so well just moments ago when runner up at Trentham, beaten only a whisker - we train her for the Trelawney Stud team - and we will look forward to seeing the beautifully bred Echezeaux line up later this afternoon in the Marton Cup for Sir Peter Vela.