Te Akau Monday Update

David writes:

What a fantastic week it has been for Te Akau – both on the racetrack and here at Te Akau Stud.

I'll start with the racing because there has certainly been plenty to celebrate.

In New Zealand, we have won seven races in just four days last week – three at Matamata and four at Ellerslie – and in Melbourne we have won another race for the second Saturday in a row.

That is a tremendous effort and I want to congratulate all the owners involved in those horses, as well as Mark, Sam, Reece, Hunter and in Australia Ben, alongside every member of our team - including Deane and Faith at the farm - who has played a part in achieving those results.

Winning races is never easy. There is an enormous amount of work that goes on behind the scenes every single day – feeding, riding, grooming, planning, veterinary care, farrier work and all the little things that have to be done properly to give every horse the best opportunity to perform.

I spoke to our Matamata Stable Manager Laura Macnab this morning and she told me there is just an incredible buzz around the stables at the moment. The team is thrilled with these results, and that is wonderful to hear.

Our people genuinely love the horses they care for and they are passionate about what they do. When you see the results coming on the track, it is a great reward for all that hard work and dedication. Karyn and I could not be more proud of them.

Three of our winners at Ellerslie were ridden by Michael McNab, who is riding in beautiful form. Michael is riding with tremendous confidence and judgement, and it is a real credit to him just how well he is performing in the saddle at present.

It was an extra thrill for me that most of our winners during the week were horses that our team had purchased at the various sales. There is always something particularly satisfying about seeing a horse that you first inspected as a yearling go on to win races for its owners.

Another win that gave us great pleasure was Vintage Rose at Matamata. She is part-owned by Kathy Bergerson and her son Sam, so that was a lovely family result and one we were all very happy to see.

Last Friday we finished docking at the farm and the final result was outstanding.

We docked 4,080 lambs from the 2,600 ewes we sent to the ram earlier this year. That is a remarkable result and a fantastic reflection of the season's hard work by our team at Te Akau Stud.

The grass on the farm for this time of year is absolutely sensational.

I'm actually talking into my Dictaphone as I drive around the farm now, and everywhere I look the grass just couldn't be better. The stock are absolutely thriving and I just get so much satisfaction from driving around Te Akau Stud and seeing the sheep and cattle and horses doing so well.

Interestingly, the New Zealand Herald predicted frosty weather for the Waikato this morning.  Well, the lowest temperature we had this morning was 11 degrees and, as I dictate this, it is now 16 degrees!

The weather people are also predicting bad areas of drought this year, but in my opinion, if the weather forecasters can't predict what is going to happen tomorrow morning, I'm not quite sure how they can tell us what is going to happen in three months' time!

We'll just keep managing what is in front of us.

At present, our fatstock buyer Alan Radford is buying about 100 steers a week for us, and we are averaging $1,800 per steer. With the grass we have in front of us at the moment, it is certainly great to see the farm looking as good as it does.

A Very Special Week Ahead

Next week is also going to be a very special one personally for Karyn and me.

On Tuesday we are going to Government House in Auckland where I will officially receive my King's Honour, and afterwards we are going to an Auckland restaurant for a nice lunch to celebrate.

We both feel so deeply honoured by this knighthood and incredibly humbled by it.

It will be a very special day for our family, but also one on which we will be thinking about all the wonderful people who have been part of our lives and the Te Akau journey over so many years. No one achieves anything worthwhile in life on their own, and we certainly know how fortunate we have been to have so many good people and loyal friends and owners alongside us.

One young horse I have to tell you about this week is Petillante, our Snitzel – Bubbleberry filly.  Her name means 'vibrant, bubbly or sparkling' - so it's very appropriate!

I am genuinely stunned that we still have shares available in her.

She was Lot 131 at the Magic Millions and we bought her for A$325,000. I was absolutely blown away that we were able to secure a filly of this calibre and pedigree for that price.

She is a really beautifully put-together filly and, most importantly, she is doing incredibly well in the stable. Everything we have seen from her since we bought her has given us plenty of reason to be excited about her future.

There is a small, wonderful ownership group already involved in Petillante - great fun to be with on trial and race days - and as an individual, I couldn't recommend this filly, who we know as 'Cristal' around the stable, more highly.

This is the sort of young horse I love buying – a beautifully bred filly by Snitzel, with quality and residual value, who is now getting on with the job and pleasing our team at home.

When we buy yearlings, we buy the horses we want to train. We don't buy them because we already have owners lined up for them – we buy them because we believe in them. And I can tell you that I am very happy to have Petillante in the Te Akau stable.

If you have been thinking about becoming involved in a young horse, or perhaps adding another one to your racing team, I would certainly encourage you to have a good look at this filly.

You are very welcome to call me personally anytime on 021 925 151, or email Karyn at [email protected]. She can send you the latest stable updates and give you any further information you would like.

You can also take a closer look at Petillante here (and that's her above in the main picture):

Meet Petillante – Snitzel x Bubbleberry filly

There is plenty happening at Te Akau at the moment, and with the young horses coming through, the older horses returning to form and the team riding on such a high, it is a very exciting time to be involved.

Thank you, as always, for your tremendous support of our entire team.

Go the Tangerine!