Te Akau eyes permanent Australian base as latest stars ready to start spring campaigns
Foxbridge Plate pair Avantage and Prise De Fer could join Probabeel on Cox Plate trail
New Zealand’s powerful Te Akau Racing outfit is still planning on having a permanent presence in Australia despite the pandemic forcing the operation to shelve its application for a Flemington stable ahead of the spring carnival with moves now afoot to eventually open a satellite operation in NSW.
As Te Akau trainer Jamie Richards prepares to unveil a number of high-profile horses at Timaru today and Te Rapa tomorrow, principal David Ellis outlined an expanded set-up in Australia and pointed to Randwick as a preferred home.
Flemington had been singled out as an option, with Ellis in April applying for 12 boxes at the Melbourne track with the backing of Cambridge Stud’s Brendan and Jo Lindsay, but Covid-19 put an end to that and now Sydney has emerged as the likely satellite arm of Te Akau.
“With the coronavirus, no decision was made, but we were certainly looking at taking a dozen horses to Melbourne for the carnival,” Ellis told ANZ Bloodstock News yesterday. “We’ll still have some there, for sure, Avantage for example, and Prise De Fer could both finish up in the Cox Plate, as could Probabeel.
“We have been taking horses to Australia to campaign for a long time and we have mainly targeted the tailend of Sydney and Brisbane (carnivals), but we’re buying horses to race at all the carnivals now.”
A Te Akau staff member, Ashley Handley, remained in Sydney after the autumn carnival and has looked after the preparations of Melody Belle (Commands) and Probabeel (Savabeel), while La Vernazza (More Than Ready), a Group 2 winner and Group 1-placed filly in New Zealand owned by Cambridge Stud, joined Richards’ Australian team recently.
“We love Randwick and we’d love to have, say, a dozen to 15 boxes there all the time. Last year, we campaigned three horses in Australia and they all won Group 1s, in Melbourne and Sydney,” said Ellis, who indicated that the Australian Turf Club had been extremely accommodating during Te Akau’s extended stay.
Te Akau Racing’s main base is at Matamata in New Zealand, while Mark Walker operates a Singapore stable for Te Akau.
Probabeel spelled in NSW after her autumn campaign and resumed with a second placing in the Show County Quality (Gr 3, 1200m) at Randwick on August 22 but stablemates running at Te Rapa this weekend could join her.
Avantage (Fastnet Rock), a four-time Group 1 winner who also landed the Karaka Million 2YO (RL, 1200m), resumes in the Valachi Downs Foxbridge Plate (Gr 2, 1200m) where she will clash with stablemates Prise De Fer (Savabeel) and Scott Base (Dalghar).
Ellis was bullish about the prospects of Avantage, a pin-up mare for Te Akau over the past three seasons, while he suggested Prise De Fer would be peaking for the Windsor Park Plate (Gr 1, 1600m) and Livamol Classic (Gr 1, 2040m) at Hastings two weeks later.
“Avantage has been flying in trackwork and she trialled up enormously two weeks ago and from Te Rapa she’ll go onto Hawkes Bay,” he said.
“Prise De Fer is a hell of a good horse and he will be a very good horse in about six weeks’ time. He is the sort of horse who could win the Group 1 mile and 2000 at Hawkes Bay.”
Two unbeaten Te Akau three-year-olds, Need I Say More (No Nay Never) and Yourpoint (Bull Point), will also resume in the Northland Breeders Stakes (Gr 3, 1200m) at Te Rapa.
The shutdown of the New Zealand racing industry earlier this year when the country went into government-enforced hibernation impacted the two-year-old campaign of Need I Say More who trialled at Matamata in March but did not race again last season.
Ellis said: “They are both horses who are coming to hand really well. The No Nay Never horse is probably not quite there yet and will improve with the run and … I know that Yourpoint has been working well.”
While the immediate focus remains on the track, looking ahead is never far from Ellis’ mind and he and Richards already have their sights set on claiming a fifth straight Karaka Million at Ellerslie next January.
That goal, and Ellis’ endorsement of New Zealand Bloodstock’s decision to keep its Karaka sale in January, has the key industry figure confident about what lies ahead for Te Akau.
“It’s an exciting time of the year and we’ve got some really nice horses coming up. We have had a mild winter and everything’s really good,” he said.
“Karaka Million night is an important part of the sale and I think it’s one of the best race days in New Zealand now.
“It gets a huge crowd, a big on-course betting crowd and huge interest from all the newspapers in New Zealand and all the TV news outlets want to cover it, so I think it is an important element to the sale and it’s a hell of a fun night.”
Richards had a colt by Newgate Farm’s first season sire Extreme Choice (Not A Single Doubt) win a juvenile barrier trial at Te Teko yesterday which came after a Brazen Beau (I Am Invincible) colt and fillies by I Am Invincible (Invincible Spirit) and Hinchinbrook (Fastnet Rock) performed well on August 18.
“We had another trial winner today who was very impressive and that was only our fourth two-year-old who has trialled,” Ellis said.
“The other ones ran second and fourth. We have a vintage team to race, but there won’t be many who race before Christmas, but come the autumn we’ll have a very exciting team to train.”