Trish Dunell Photography
The immediate future of the promising three-year-old Te Akau Shark is uncertain.
“He’s on the easy list and we’re checking him over to see what’s going on and if everything is 100 per cent,” said Jamie Richards, who trains the son of Rip Van Winkle with Stephen Autridge.
Te Akau Shark was withdrawn from the Hawke’s Bay meeting on New Year’s Day and also scratched from today’s Tauranga fixture.
“He’s been feeling the hard ground and we’re just waiting for our team to go over him and give us a recommendation about what we do,” Richards said.
“We’ll then sit down with syndicate manager David Ellis and talk it through.”
Te Akau Shark, who at this stage remains in Gr.1 Vodafone New Zealand Derby (2400m) contention, won his first two starts before finishing fourth in the Gr.1 New Zealand 2000 Guineas (1600m).