Origin Of Love Delivers Te Akau Racing Their 100th Winner Of The Season

Mark Walker and Sam Bergerson's Te Akau Racing operation reached 100 winners for the season in emphatic style, with Origin Of Love capturing the Gr.2 Taylor Property Plus Wellington Guineas at Trentham before Perlino sealed the century at Riccarton later the same day.

Craig Grylls delivered a brilliant front-running ride aboard Origin Of Love, the Snitzel filly bolting away with the 1600m feature to register as Te Akau's 99th winner of the campaign. It was Grylls at his most decisive, refusing to yield the rail and forcing rivals to chase throughout.

The milestone itself fell to Perlino, a Super Seth filly who overcame an unfavorable outside draw to score under Te Akau apprentice Hayley Hassman in the Momentum Consulting Rating 65 over 1600m at Riccarton. The win was earned the hard way: Perlino raced three-wide from the jump and still sustained her run to the line.

"She had to do it tough today, three-wide from the outside draw and she sustained a long, long, run to win," Walker said. "She's gone to a new level down south in our stable at Riccarton. She was going the right way, anyway, but recorded a big win at her third start, which earned her a run in the Dunedin Guineas, and now she's won again. It was a big effort to win today, given the run she got, so we will look for another black-type opportunity with her."

Perlino's path to this moment had been rapid. An easy seven-and-a-half-length maiden winner over a mile in February, she had then held her own racing three-wide in the Listed Dunedin Guineas before dropping in grade to find the winner's stall at Riccarton.

The century milestone carries particular weight given the context of Te Akau's broader season. The stable claimed their 16th Training Premiership in 2024/25, recording 131 wins and establishing a new record of $9.27 million in prize money. The 100th winner of the current season was their sixth consecutive century, and the tally already contains 14 stakes wins, with 17 victories recorded in the current month alone.

Inflamed also featured on the day's results sheet, winning the Breeders' Stakes, while Platinum Attack added another success at Trentham, underscoring the depth of New Zealand thoroughbred racing's current moment. For Te Akau specifically, the double strike confirmed a stable operating at a level few operations in Australasian racing can match.