Te Akau Tuesday Update
19 Sep 2023
David writes:
Congratulations to our whole team (owners and stable/stud team) on another remarkable week for the tangerine!
From Saturday to Saturday we won five black type races including a Group 1, Group 2, Group 3 and two Listed races – wow that’s exciting!
One question I frequently get asked is why do we take our horses down to the South Island so early and the answer is to get better tracks. It’s always been our view that, with all the black type races leading into the carnival, good tracks are a big help to win those races.
For example, on Saturday at Riccarton – Challa went 1.6 and a bit to win the 1200m race, breaking the track record in the process. While it wasn’t a stakes’ race – he has won two $50,000 races in the past two weeks. What a great job by our senior statesman! He’s been a great warrior for his owners, and just loves being back in the south.
This year the Group 1 2000 Guineas (which Te Akau has won more times than any other stable) is worth $600,000 and the 1000 Guineas is worth $500,000. Isn’t it amazing what the Entain partnership is delivering? It’s just such an exciting time to be involved in racing.
Speaking of the Guineas – huge news announced today:
The Trustees of the Christchurch Racecourse announced they will provide a $100,000 bonus to the owners of the first three placegetters in the Group 1 Al Basti Equiworld Dubai New Zealand 2000 Guineas (1600m) at Riccarton on November 11.
This is over and above the $600,000 stake money attached to the Group One feature.
A $70,000 bonus will be paid to the winning owner(s), $20,000 to the owner(s) of the second placegetter and $10,000 to the owner(s) of the third placegetter.
The good news on stakes just keeps on coming. There has never been a better time be involved.
Our yearlings are almost all sold and I would like to again welcome all our new (as well as loyal existing) owners. One day last week we celebrated five first-time owners alone!
It looks like the last horse to sell will be Lot 53. A colt I purchased from the Magic Millions sale. He is by exiting young sire Exceedance out of Legal Eagle, and is named Legally Binding – I bought him for A$90,000.
Have a look at the pedigree of this colt.
His 1st dam is a More Than Ready mare; his 2nd dam is a Danehill mare and his 3rd dam is a Sir Tristram mare. I wonder if he will be as good as Tokyo Tycoon, Avantage, Cool Aza Beel and Imperatriz who were all the last to sell in their year.
To see a photo of this colt and his pedigree, click on this link https://teakauracing.com/product/magic-millions-gold-coast-yearling-sale-lot-5/
The other exciting news always comes at this time of the year: our broodmares are foaling weekly at present. This morning we had a simply magnificent filly by Sword of State out of Nimah Elizabeth – a half sister to Sorcha and Cu Chulainn. This exciting emerging stallion would be one of the best racehorses Te Akau has ever trained – don’t forget he beat Imperatriz easily at Ellerslie last year. Marcus Corban who inspects the foals for me was just blown away with how outstanding the Sword of State foals are.
We also have welcomed a Savabeel colt out of Miss Scandinavia, a Darci Brahma filly out of Princess Davone and a Sword of State filly out of Seductive D’Oro. There are plenty more to come too.
Former star Group 1 mares trained by Te Akau and purchased by me as yearlings have also all become first time mothers: Probabeel delivered a healthy Almanzor filly, while Amarelinha welcomed an Almanzor colt and Kahma Lass, a Maurice colt. We can’t wait to see their futures unfold.
It’s certainly a very exciting time to be breeding because of the following statistics:
In 1976, which was the first year Sir Tristram went to stud, there were 28 new stallions that went to stud that year. This year there was just one. In 1994 there were 24. In 1986 we had 6,100 foals born and by 2022 we were down to 2,500.
These are serious statistics that we need to be concerned about, so if you own a mare, make sure you breed from her! We have actually increased our small broodmare band.
Another interesting statistic is that in 2000 there were 2,900 races run. Last year in 2,022 there were only 2,300 races. No wonder Entain are so keen on promoting racing ownership and with the stakes’ increases, watch it rise.
With this fine weather we are full on docking lambs at the farm. This morning we docked 400.
Today at the Frankton sale we bought 25 steers at an average weight of 325 kilo and an average price of $964. Alan Radford who is the best in the business has done all my buying and selling since 1979.
We have a good team racing at Matamata tomorrow, Tauranga on Saturday, and Rotorua on Sunday.
Best of luck to all our owners and …