The first Te Akau test of the black-type season comes courtesy of Trobriand in tomorrow’s $100,000 Northland Breeders Stakes.
Te Akau’s huge racing operation has seen senior trainer Mark Walker joined by Sam Bergerson in partnership after the Walker’s record-setting 203-win domestic tally last season.
With Te Akau setting up a Victorian satellite stable this season that number is unlikely to be threatened as the Australian stable will reduce their domestic firepower, with a mare such as Imperatriz who dominated our Group 1 sprints last season heading straight to Australia without racing here this spring.
“She is really well and will gallop with Legarto tomorrow before heading to the black-type trials at Taupō and then start back racing in Victoria on September 9,” says Walker.
But the stable will still have enormous firepower at home and their staggered resumptions over the next two months pose a puzzle summed up by Trobriand at Ruakākā tomorrow.