13 minute read
Te Akau
from 2024 MMGC Magazine
By Kristen Manning
A 17-year-old boy headed to an Ellerslie race meeting one day in the early 1970s...
He’d never been to the races before, there was no equine interest in his family. He went to the track with $12 in his pocket and left with $84. A $72 profit that led to a life long passion... “I remember thinking that this is the easiest way to make money of all time!” he laughed.
The boy who “was hooked from that day on” was David Ellis.
Fast forward a few decades and the tangerine and royal blue silks of Te Akau Racing - run by David and his wife Karyn Fenton-Ellis - are immediately recognisable. They have been carried to victory in major races on outstanding horses including the mare who has won more Group 1 races this year than any horse, anywhere. The marvellous mare Imperatriz, graduate of the 2020 Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale.
But more on her later!
Whilst David may not have hailed from a racing family, he always had a passion for agriculture - after spending school holidays at a friend’s farm deciding that this was the sort of life he’d like to lead. To that end he studied - first at the Flock House Agricultural College, then at Massey University where he acquired a Diploma Degree in Agriculture whilst also spending time shepherding on a sheep and cattle station. His ambition from those early days was to own his own farm and in order to save the money to buy a property he began to work. And work hard - from the wee hours through to the afternoon at a freezing works and from the afternoon through to the evening painting houses; inside during the winter, outside over the summer months. And if that was not enough six days a week, on Sundays he pumped petrol... this was one determined young man!
By 1979 David had saved enough to buy “a very run down” 550 or so acres with the ambition to turn it into a successful sheep and cattle farm. It was at around the same time that he began to dabble in racehorse ownership and it was in November 1978 that he enjoyed his first taste of victory with the leased Sovereign Edition mare Magnum. At her fifth start winning a 1400m maiden at Paeroa, the mare - who would go onto produce the Gr.1 winning sprinter Mrs Selleck, was the very first horse to win in the tangerine and royal blue. Colours David had designed on his trainer’s advice“make sure they are easy to see! I remember at the time thinking that if I could win ten races in those colours that would be incredible.”
That first win at a small midweeker a week after the Gr.1 Melbourne Cup win recorded by the New Zealand bred galloper Arwon - was a milestone. Not just because a first win is always special... “it felt like I’d won the Melbourne Cup!” but because it led David to a realisation - that he really didn’t want to do this ownership thing on his own. “My trainer had to go and saddle up his next runner so I was left there drinking on my own, thinking that this was not as much fun as I’d hoped. From thereon I wanted to race with friends, to have people to celebrate with!”
And so Te Akau Racing was born.
Diversifying his sheep and cattle farm into a thoroughbred base, he purchased a neighbouring farm and established racing stables. He looks back at those days as being “hard work with moderate success.”
Though a Gr.1 winner did not take long with the privately purchased Cosmetique taking out the Easter Stakes at Ellerslie in 1986. Second to her that day was a chestnut by the name of Waverley Star who later in the year would earn hearts with his gutsy defeat at the hands of Bonecrusher in one of the most stirringly memorable runnings of the Gr.1 W.S Cox Plate.
A couple of years before that David made his first Trentham Yearling Sale purchase, a Sovereign Edition filly secured for $65,000. She made for a far from auspicious start to his career as a buyer... “the trainer said she was the slowest horse he’d ever had!” But after her purchase her family began to perform well and with Sovereign Edition fillies in demand, she was sold to Cambridge Stud - David the beneficiary of a great deal that saw him acquire $200,000 as well as a nomination to the great Sir Tristram which he sold for six figures.
With Sir Tristram making his mark, David decided to chase his daughters and in the Spring of 1987 his $210,000 purchase - a filly out of a Sovereign Edition mare - made a winning debut at Te Rapa. Sentimentally named Sarah Fay after David’s daughter, she made her way to the Bart Cummings stables - for that master trainer winning the Listed Craven Plate in track record time.
Foaled three years after Sarah Fay was a Grosvenor colt purchased by David for $40,000 at the Magic Millions Trentham Yearling Sale... a horse who would play an important part in the career of one of Australia’s most successful trainers. When taking out the 1992 Gr.1 Metropolitan Handicap, Te Akau Nick became Gai Waterhouse’s first elite level winner. And what a ride he took his trainer and his owners on - the following year such a game second to Vintage Crop in the Melbourne Cup. David has fond memories of not only the horse, but of the people surrounding him - Te Akau Nick originally trained by the late Colin Jillings, the New Zealand Racing Hall Of Fame member who he describes as “a great friend.”
Forging many friendships over the years, David has won - as a buyer, owner, breeder and syndicator lots of races - lots and lots in fact!
Overseeing a training operation - one that has grown from New Zealand into Singapore and most recently into Australia - that has sent out well over 2000 winners, Te Akau has celebrated over 260 stakes victories including horses who have won over 70 Gr.1 races.
The stars of the Te Akau show have been the multiple Gr.1 winners Avantage, Melody Belle, Te Akau Shark, Probabeel, Gingernuts and - of course - Imperatriz.
Not surprisingly David is rather proud of that star mare’s achievements, especially of the fact that “she has won more Gr.1 races this year than any horse in the world.”
A daughter of the two times Australian Champion Sire I Am Invincible and the winning Shamardal mare Berimbau, Imperatriz caught David’s eye at the 2020 Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale where it took $360,000 to secure her.
Selling her on behalf of her breeder Raffles Dancers, Bhima Stud’s Mike Fleming thought she may’ve actually been worth more than that but was delighted that she was heading to such a good home. “When you sell yearlings out of mares owned by clients you want them to go to the sort of home that will let them develop,” he said, adding that Te Akau Racing is one such home - “they have the systems in place to give their horses every opportunity to fulfil their potential.”
David liked what he saw in Imperatriz, noting that she was “a really athletic filly who just wasn’t quite as strong as a lot of the other yearlings at the sale. I knew she would not be an early twoyear-old type but I could see the horse she was going to develop into.” Which is how David always goes about buying young horses, noting that “it is not quite so much what a yearling looks like on the day I buy them - I visualise what they will look like the day the jockey gets legged up.”
Spending a bit of quiet time at the farm before being broken in, Imperatriz did everything right from the start with David recalling that “everyone who rode her was impressed.” And one day David received the sort of phone call every owner dreams of getting - from Te Akau’s highly accomplished jockey Opie Bosson. “He rang me on the way home from track work and said ‘I’ve found one boss!’”
“To get good feedback from the world class judge that Opie is was pretty exciting,” David said.
Having saluted at debut, Imperatriz was quickly up in class taking out the Gr.2 Eclipse Stakes at just her second outing. It has been all up from there... the popular bay having won 17 of her 23 starts - amassing in excess of $5.3 million in stakes. The most prolific elite level winner and stakes winner for her sire, she has won eight Gr.1 races over 1200m, 1400m and 1600m.
Little wonder then that David is a fan of the Magic Millions sales ring with a number of his best performers found at the Gold Coast. Including, from the same sale as Imperatriz, the Gr.1 winning sprinter Sword of State who now calls Cambridge Stud home. Noting that it is a big thrill to stand a stallion at such a prestigious farm, David has been supporting Sword of State with Te Akau mares and is excited by what he is seeing so far. “His foals look quite outstanding, he is a real chance.”
“I have had a lot of luck at the Magic Millions,” David said, noting that his other Gold Coast success stories include the Gr.1 NZ 2000 Guineas winner Tell a Tale ($125,000 - 2007 National Yearling Sale) and a number of successful race mares who he returned to the Gold Coast to sell.
“He rang me on the way home from track work and said ‘I’ve found one boss!’”
Such as the Gr.1 NZ 1000 Guineas heroine Costa Viva, a $100,000 purchase at the 2021 National Yearling Sale who Peter Ford purchased for $400,000 at the 2010 National Broodmare Sale. And the four times Gr.1 winner Princess Coup - a $260,000 purchase at the 2005 National Yearling Sale who was bought by E Thoroughbred for $3 million at the 2009 National Broodmare Sale.
And Te Akau’s most prolific Gr.1 winner - the two times New Zealand Horse of The Year Melody Belle who was purchased by the Written Tycoon Syndicate for $2.6 million at the 2021 National Broodmare Sale.
David buys horses for a variety of owners - groups both large and small as well as single owners and breeders. He loves buying from the sales, noting that “most breeders need turnover to survive - to pay service fees, to reinvest - so they tend to take their best horses to the sales.”
“So if you want great buying, you go to the sales,” he said, noting that “as soon as the catalogue comes out I spend two or three hours each night going through the pedigrees.”
David inspects horses at the sales and before - and at the time of our chat he was preparing for an upcoming trip to Newhaven Stud to inspect some youngsters whilst also checking in on two two Te Akau Gr.1 winners - Xtravagant and Cool Aza Beel.
My trainer had to go and saddle up his next runner so I was left there drinking on my own, thinking that this was not as much fun as I’d hoped. From thereon I wanted to race with friends, to have people to celebrate with!
David is delighted to have two stallions at Newhaven - “we like to do the best job we can for owners when we place a horse at stud but it is best that they end up at proven farms and to have two at such a proven stud as Newhaven is pretty exciting. They do such a great job giving their stallions every opportunity to succeed.”
Te Akau boast an excellent history of stallion success; from his base at The Oaks Stud Darci Brahma doing such a good job siring 57 stakes winners including twelve Gr.1 winners.
The son of Danehill and the Gr.1 Australasian Oaks winning Zabeel mare Grand Echezeaux was the first million dollar yearling purchased by David and when asked if he had any extra nerves that day he said “I am lucky, I don’t really feel the pressure - it’s just another day at the office. But it is,” he admits, “pretty good when those horses turn out to be good!” As Darci Brahma, with his five Gr.1 victories certainly did. David and Karyn enjoy the wins - big and small - not only for themselves but for the joy it brings others; the owners as well as the Te Akau team of staff. “Watching the thrill they get out of it is the thrill for us!” he said, adding that they consider themselves lucky in regards to “having the best owners in the world” as well as “great staff who work really hard” and “our world class trainer Mark Walker.”
Te Akau only recently expanded, after considerable research, into Australia - choosing Cranbourne as their base.
And David could not be happier with the decision“everyone has been so kind to us and Cranbourne has the best facilities of any track we looked at, we had no hesitation in choosing to set up there.”
Appointing Ben Gleeson as Assistant Trainer, Te Akau currently have 15 horses in work at the Cranbourne stables including Imperatriz and the G1 1000 Guineas bound Zourion. And there are plans for expansion with the aim of accommodating up to 70 horses within the next two years - Mark Walker also training for outside clients.
Everyone works hard with David noting that racing is not just a job - “to succeed in racing you have to commit to 14 hour days, seven days a week! You have to give it your heart and soul and surround yourself with people who will do the same.”
“A lot of our staff have been with us for 20 and 30 years,” he said, taking great satisfaction from the love everyone has for the horses they work with.
On sales day David inspects the horses he likes two or three times but admits that first impressions are what matters most - “the first time I see a horse I have pretty much made up my mind about them.” He places around 40% of importance on pedigree, 60% on type, noting that there have been times when he has taken a punt on not liking one of those things about a horse whilst loving the other.
And each time a horse succeeds he enjoys the process “of going back and having a look at my notes.”
David met his wife Karyn when she, in her role as a Trackside television presenter, requested an interview with him at the yearling sales. “I said I would if she’d agree to go out for dinner with me!”
Next year celebrating their 20th anniversary, the couple work well together with family members also part of the team - including Karyn’s daughter JuliaRose, Te Akau’s Marketing manager who does such a great job running the company’s website and social media channels.
It is his passion for racing that keeps him going through the long hours and the sometimes demanding set-backs. Sometimes those involved in the game become jaded as the years fly by but David is no such person.
“I am a racing tragic,” he said.
“ I still love going to the races and I am so lucky to be doing for a living what is actually my hobby.”
