Te Akau's "Season That Was" continues ...

We now reflect on the seventh of 18 Group/Listed wins for Te Akau NZ trainer Jamie Richards and our team during the 2018/19 season - seven of those at the elite Group 1 level. Our 7th stakes' win was a great thrill for daughter Julia-Rose and her husband Hamish Hayes, with Julia-Rose having purchased a share in Swing Note for her then fiancé's birthday!

A thrilling victory by Swing Note  (4 m Encosta De Lago - Andallthatjazz, by Bianconi) in the $50,000 Christchurch Casino Spring Classic (Listed, 2000m) culminated three wins and three seconds from six starters for Te Akau Racing on 27 October at Riccarton.

From back in the field, Shafiq was able to extract the necessary spirit from Swing Note and she lifted to an advantage in a great three-way finish.

“Jamie (Richards) and his father, Paul Richards, have got our horses racing unbelievably well down at Riccarton,” said Te Akau principal David Ellis. “They've had 11 winners with the southern based team, Jamie has trained 32 winners overall, including seven stakes winners, at a phenomenal strike rate of 3.7 and closing in on a million in prize money - it's only October - and over fifty percent of the horses are paying a dividend.

Ellis purchased Swing Note for $60,000 from the draft of Turangga Farm at the 2016 Gold Coast Yearling Sale, a sale where he also bought Champion Two-Year-Old finalist Gold Fever (Savabeel). 

“She was a very athletic filly, by a sire we've had huge success with. We really have had some top horses by Encosta De Lago. None more so than Princess Coup and more recently Costa Viva, Echezeaux, and Imperium,” Ellis said. “She was out of a Guineas' winning mare and I thought $60,000 was unbelievable value.”

Owned by the Te Akau Jazz Syndicate, Swing Note has a strong family connection through son-in-law Hamish Hayes.

“It was really exciting result because Julia-Rose (Ellis) bought Hamish a share in Swing Note for his birthday,” Ellis said. “Hamish said to me, there's three great moments in his life. One was when he proposed to Julia-Rose, one when they had their first child, and Swing Note winning today.”

For trainer Jamie Richards, the win was culminated a calculated plan. Swing Note had campaigned as a three-year-old at Riccarton, finishing third in the Zacinto Stakes (Listed, 1600m) and fifth in the 1000 Guineas (Gr. 1, 1600m), and following a spell in March he earmarked the Spring Classic as a stakes race she could win.

After resuming with consecutive wins at Ashburton and Wingatui, respectively, she missed on Heavy10 footing on Timaru, in a timely lead-up run, and became the fourth Spring Classic winner for Te Akau, following Grazia a year earlier, Wholfwhistle (O'Reilly) in 2014, and Viana (Volksraad) in 2013.

“Often in the Te Akau model it's worked to get horses down to Riccarton early and the results speak for themselves,” Richards said. “This mare won her first two starts in this campaign by big margins over 1400m and 1600m, but can become dour quite quickly, so we were mindful of not stepping her up in distance too soon. We were scratching our heads after her last run, but just put it down to the heavy track and she's certainly turned it around in a race that we picked out for her a fair while ago.”

Swing Note was strapped by Joe Kamaruddin.

Photo credit - www.raceimages.co.nz

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