Photo: Trish Dunell
After 19 years of dominance in the Karaka sales auditorium as the leading buyer at New Zealand Bloodstock’s National Yearling Sale, Te Akau Racing principal David Ellis will return to the South Auckland venue later this week in a bid to make it an even 20.
He whet his appetite for buying quality yearlings at Magic Millions’ Gold Coast Yearling Sale earlier this month where he was on the buyers’ sheet for 21 yearlings.
“Overall, it was a really good sale,” Ellis said.
He was particularly taken by lot 37, the Snitzel colt out of Group One-winning mare Toffee Tongue, who is a full-sister to multiple Group One winner and Hong Kong Horse of the Year Werther, Group Three winner Gobstopper, and Group One performer Milseain.
Ellis went to A$625,000 to purchase the colt out of Bhima Thoroughbreds’ draft and he believes they will have plenty of fun racing him out of their Cranbourne barn.
“He is one of the nicest colts I have bought,” Ellis said. “We thought we would have to pay a lot more for him, he has been very popular. He is going to race from our Cranbourne stable and we will get him ready for a race like the Blue Diamond (Gr.1, 1200m).”
Ellis didn’t let the dust settle following his Gold Coast trip, returning to New Zealand to continue his on-farm inspections of Karaka-bound yearlings, and he is looking forward to fine-tuning his short-list this week.
“I have been spending the last week looking at yearlings in the Waikato and Auckland and there are some really top yearlings there and I am really looking forward to the sale,” he said.
“We have got a short list that Reece Trumper, Marcus Corban and I have identified. We will get them vetted and we will finish up with a short list again, and we will go and inspect them this week at Karaka.
“We will try to buy the best colts and fillies in the sale.”
Prior to the yearling sale commencing, Ellis will head to Ellerslie on Saturday where Te Akau Racing trainers Mark Walker and Sam Bergerson will be out to continue their dominance at the renowned Karaka Millions meeting, with the stable having won seven of the last eight editions of the Karaka Millions 2YO (1200m).
“We didn’t win one last year, but we finished second with Damask Rose and she is one of the favourites for the three-year-old race this year,” Ellis said. “We will have three, possibly four in the Karaka Millions 2YO race.
“We have got Blake Shinn, one of the all-time great jockeys in Australia coming over to ride for us with Craig Williams.”
Te Akau will also be well-represented on the undercard, with Group One-winning stablemates Move To Strike and Captured By Love set to feature in the Gr.3 Cambridge Stud Almanzor Trophy (1200m) and Gr.1 Sistema Railway (1200m) respectively.
“We have got a really exciting team racing on Saturday night. It is one of the great nights of racing in the world,” Ellis said.
“It is certainly a very exciting time for people to be investing in New Zealand racing. With the prizemoney going up to the level it has, it’s very exciting.”
