11 September, 2023
Cover image courtesy of The Image Is Everything
With Skew Wiff’s (NZ) (Savabeel) Group 1 breakthrough spearheading a stakes-race treble in New Zealand and stable star Imperatriz (I Am Invincible) getting the new Cranbourne venture off to the perfect start, you’d be hard pressed to find a better day in Te Akau Racing’s recent history.
The famous tangerine silks with the blue stars have been carried to major race success on countless occasions over the past decade and beyond, but Saturday’s stakes haul was right up there with the best of them according to Ellis, who was quick to credit the recently established Te Akau training partnership of Mark Walker and Sam Bergerson.
Sam Bergerson | Image courtesy of Te Akau
“It was an absolutely incredible day,” Ellis told TTR AusNZ.
“I get a lot of thrill out of seeing young people come and work at Te Akau, so to see Sam Bergerson win his first Group 1 after only 39 days of having a license was incredible.
“To win four black-type races on the day, including the Group 1 at Hawke’s Bay, is a massive thrill and one of the things that keeps me going.”
“I get a lot of thrill out of seeing young people come and work at Te Akau, so to see Sam Bergerson win his first Group 1 after only 39 days of having a license was incredible.” - David Ellis
Arguably the most impressive performance among Te Akau’s quartet of stakes winners - at least from a visual perspective - came courtesy of five-time Group 1 heroine Imperatriz, who went from last to first in a matter of strides to run out a dominant winner of the G2 McEwen S. at The Valley.
The star mare was sent over from New Zealand to be the flag-bearer for Te Akau’s recently acquired stables at Cranbourne in Victoria, and Ellis could not have wished for a better start to the exciting new venture.
“She was electric and Ben Gleeson has done an amazing job with her,” Ellis said of Imperatriz.
“She (Imperatriz) was electric and Ben Gleeson has done an amazing job with her.” - David Ellis
“We bought her at the Magic Millions Sale in January for $360,000 and pretty much from the word go she showed us that she was a pretty good filly, but interestingly enough she was the last yearling to sell that year.
“We’re just so thrilled that our Cranbourne base has got off to such a good start. It has been very well received by our owners and even the other trainers at Cranbourne have made us feel so welcome.
“Most of the studs in Australia have said that they’re going to have a horse with us, so it’s very exciting.”
Ellis was equally delighted to have teamed up with Imperatriz’s jockey Michael Dee, a former Te Akau apprentice whom he labelled as “a top person and one of the best riders in Australia”.
Michael Dee | Image courtesy of The Image Is Everything
Dee was effusive in his praise for Imperatriz during his post-race debrief, and his comments are bound to be ringing in the ears of The Everest slotholders yet to lock in a horse for this year’s $20 million showpiece.
Having originally been pencilled in for an all-Melbourne spring campaign, Ellis revealed that Imperatriz’s emphatic first-up performance has prompted a bit of a re-think, with multiple slotholders quickly circling in the immediate aftermath of Saturday’s McEwen romp.
“We hadn’t given The Everest much consideration but we will this week, we’ve got a couple of people that are interested in talking to us,” Ellis revealed.
“We hadn’t given The Everest much consideration but we will this week, we’ve got a couple of people that are interested in talking to us.” - David Ellis
“We’ll just see how she comes through the race and we’ll make a decision in the week.
“Being by I Am Invincible from a really top family, she’s a very valuable mare.”
Similar sentiments apply to Imperatriz’s stablemate Skew Wiff (NZ) (Savabeel), who made her richly deserved elite-level breakthrough in a red-hot renewal of the G1 Tarzino Trophy at Hastings on Saturday.
Given a peach of a ride by Opie Bosson, who just two days earlier was at Government House in Auckland receiving his King’s Honour, Skew Wiff left no less than nine individual Group 1 winners toiling in her wake as she prevailed by a head in what Ellis believes was one of the strongest Group 1 fields in New Zealand for some time.
The Mark Walker and Sam Bergerson-trained mare twice had to settle for second in Group 1 contests during the autumn, but she signalled that she had returned for the spring in terrific order with an impressive barrier trial and an encouraging first-up performance, in which she again filled the runner-up spot behind seven-figure yearling purchase Dragon Leap (Pierro) in last month’s G2 Foxbridge Plate at Te Rapa.
Out of the stakes-winning Starcraft (NZ) mare Starvoia and a great-granddaughter of the G1 South Australian Oaks heroine Dowry (NZ) (Bahhare {USA}), Skew Wiff was initially set to be offered by her breeders Waikato Stud at the New Zealand Bloodstock (NZB) Karaka Yearling Sale, only for injury to force her withdrawal.
Skew Wiff (NZ) winning the G1 Tarzino Trophy at Hastings on Saturday | Image courtesy of Peter Rubery (Race Images Palmerston North)
Having already taken a shine to her during inspections, Ellis jumped at the chance to buy into the daughter of Savabeel - whom he deemed as one of the most impressive fillies in the catalogue - when the opportunity arose shortly after her withdrawal.
“I went to Waikato Stud in December to look at their yearlings and I thought that she was their best filly,” Ellis recalled.
“I went back to have another look at her at Karaka and she’d been withdrawn, she’d had a minor injury.
“I said to Mark Chittick, ‘Oh, I’m really disappointed that you’ve withdrawn that filly, I thought that she was the best horse in your draft’, and he said they had to because she’d hurt herself, but that we could have her to train.
“I said to Mark Chittick, ‘Oh, I’m really disappointed that you’ve withdrawn that filly, I thought that she was the best horse in your draft’.” - David Ellis
“It has all worked out brilliantly in the end and we’ve had huge luck with the progeny of Savabeel. I think that we’ve trained over a third of his Group 1 wins.”
While Ellis and Te Akau are almost synonymous with the progeny of Waikato Stud’s multiple Champion Sire Savabeel, the same cannot be said of Rich Hill Stud’s burgeoning stallion Satono Aladdin (Jpn), whose son Tokyo Tycoon (NZ) got the day off to a flyer for Te Akau after he returned to action with a convincing success in the Listed Sir Colin Meads Trophy.
Tokyo Tycoon (NZ) | Image courtesy of Peter Rubery (Race Images Palmerston North)
Tokyo Tycoon took all before him during his juvenile campaign and would still be unbeaten had it not been for his disqualification from the G1 Sistema S., which came as a result of a positive post-race test to the non-steroidal anti-inflammatory Meloxicam.
Subsequently proven to be a result of human error, Tokyo Tycoon’s career is now firmly back on track following Saturday’s success, and the exciting 3-year-old, whom Ellis believes is far from the finished article, is being set on a New Zealand Derby path.
“It’s always nice to see a top 2-year-old come back as a 3-year-old,” Ellis said.
“Dynastic won the Karaka Million the year before and he came back and won the same race as yesterday. He’s now in Melbourne at Cranbourne, but Tokyo Tycoon is staying put and his main goal will be the Karaka Million 3-Year-Old Classic, which is a NZ$1.5 million dollar race in January, then we’ll go to the New Zealand Derby.
“I think that he’ll be a much better horse in the autumn. He’s still got a lot of filling out and developing to do, so what he’s doing at the moment is just on class.”
“I think that he’ll (Tokyo Tycoon) be a much better horse in the autumn. He’s still got a lot of filling out and developing to do, so what he’s doing at the moment is just on class.” - David Ellis
One who still has her unbeaten record in tact is exciting 3-year-old Quintessa (NZ) (Shamus Award), who made it a perfect three from three with a stylish success in Saturday’s G3 Gold Trail S. at Hastings, taking out the first leg of the prestigious NZB Filly of the Year Series in the process.
The daughter of Shamus Award handled the step up to stakes grade with consummate ease to become the 22nd stakes winner for her Rosemont Stud-based sire, and she will now form part of a typically strong Te Akau team for next year’s Karaka Million meeting, a day which the tangerine has made a habit of dominating in recent times.
A NZ$170,000 purchase from the Wentwood Grange draft during Book 1 of the NZB Karaka Yearling Sale, Quintessa was always a standout yearling according to Ellis.
“She just had a lovely way about her,” he recalled. “She had a lovely action when she was moving, a great girth, a great shoulder and she was very strong through the gaskin.
“I remember her very clearly. She was bred by Linda Huddy, who breeds really top horses and it’s great to be able to buy a good filly like this off her.
“She’s a really exciting young filly and she’ll head towards the (New Zealand) 1000 Guineas at Riccarton, then we’ll get her ready for the Karaka Million (3-Year-Old Classic) too. We’ll see how she comes up, but after the Karaka Million we’ll head towards The Oaks and she could finish up in Sydney or Brisbane for sure.
“That’s the beauty of having the stables in Australia now, it makes sending horses over there a lot easier.”
All four of Te Akau’s stakes winners on Saturday have untapped ability in common, but that’s about where the similarities end, with the quartet all sired by different stallions with a variety of different profiles.
None of the quartet broke the bank either, with Imperatriz the most expensive yearling purchase of the four at $360,000, while Tokyo Tycoon and Quintessa cost a very reasonable NZ$125,000 and NZ$170,000 respectively at auction.
Imperatriz as a yearling | Image courtesy of Magic Millions
Some of Te Akau’s most successful horses have been by less established stallions, and when it comes to buying the tangerine team’s stars of the future, Ellis places a greater emphasis on what he can envisage 12 months down the line as opposed to the here and now.
“Being a stockman and a farmer I understand animals, and I think being able to visualize how a horse will develop from a yearling to a 2-year-old, 3-year-old and beyond is what it’s all about,” he said.
“What they look like as a yearling is irrelevant. What is very relevant is what they look like the day you leg the jockey on for the first time - and they change dramatically.
“What they look like as a yearling is irrelevant. What is very relevant is what they look like the day you leg the jockey on for the first time - and they change dramatically.” - David Ellis
“I place limited strength on the sire. When I bought Tokyo Tycoon, none of the Satono Aladdins had raced, but with Skew Wiff and Imperatriz, Savabeel and I Am Invincible are the best you can get.
“There is a greater emphasis on type over pedigree for me and I’m always happy to buy the progeny of different sires.”
