Our Ella Belle Colt joins Katie Lee Colt

The Informant reports:

Katie Lee and Our Ella Belle were once high-class adversaries on the racetrack, and now their progeny have been brought together as stablemates.

Katie Lee made history in 2009 as the first horse to ever win both the New Zealand 2000 Guineas and New Zealand 1000 Guineas. During yesterday's second session of the Book 1 sale at Karaka, Te Akau principal David Ellis bought her Savabeel colt for a sale-topping $1.025 million.

Another runner in the 1000 Guineas field was the blue-blooded Encosta de Lago filly Our Ella Belle, raced by her breeders Sir Peter and the late Philip Vela and trained in the Te Akau stable of Mark Walker.

Our Ella Belle was blocked for a run in the Guineas but stormed home late in the race, finishing a close third behind Katie Lee and Keep The Peace.

Our Ella Belle went on to win the Gr. 3 Taranaki Cup before retiring to the Velas' Pencarrow Stud broodmare band.

Today the mare's colt by Exceed And Excel was offered by Pencarrow as Lot 455. Ellis fended off no fewer than four underbidders to secure the colt for $750,000.

“We trained Our Ella Belle and she was a filly of enormous class,” Ellis said. “I believe she was among the top two or three fillies that Te Akau has ever trained.

“We've had some great results with horses with the V in the box (Pencarrow brand) - Darci Brahma, Burgundy and more. I'm just so thrilled to now have such an outstanding colt from that nursery.

“I went to inspect him and I just thought ‘wow'. He's a stunning colt. He's just perfect for the Karaka Million next year, and he looks like he will train on for the 2000 Guineas as a three-year-old.

“I thought this colt would make between $700,000 and $1 million, but it's difficult to find a precise value at that level. Everybody sees different things in horses, and that's an exciting thing.”

The colt joins two of yesterday's purchases in Te Akau's popular colts' syndicate.

“The colts' syndicate is now complete,” Ellis said. “It's the Snitzel-Floria colt ($625,000), the Savabeel-Katie Lee colt ($1.025 million) and this Exceed And Excel-Our Ella Belle colt.”

Sir Peter Vela was delighted to see Ellis secure the Our Ella Belle colt.

“I couldn't be happier,” he said. “One thing is seeing a yearling sell, and the other is seeing it go to a good home. Really the latter is more important. I'm delighted to see him go to Te Akau.

“Mark Walker trained Our Ella Belle for us. She was a lovely filly, and James McDonald rode her in the 1000 Guineas without a lot of luck. She comes from a special family of ours that dates back to when Joe Walls bought the third dam Heidi Belle for us.”

Vela has also been delighted with the results of the new-look Book 1 sale, and was full of praise for the key role played by leading buyer Ellis.

“The concept seems to have worked,” he said. “There are still several days to go, so a bit more time before we can celebrate or commiserate, but the aggregate has gone past $52 million, the clearance rate is 82 per cent and the average is over $160,000 - those are results you would have been very happy with in the previous K1 format.

“David's contribution speaks for itself. It means a great deal to see these horses retained in New Zealand.”