Unbeaten Return To Conquer Retired

Unbeaten Group One winning two-year-old Return To Conquer (3 c Snitzel – Vaujany, by Lonhro) has been retired from racing due to injury and is preparing to embark on a stallion career.

Bought as a yearling colt by Te Akau principal David Ellis CNZM on the Gold Coast, from the draft of Blue Gum Farm, and only having competed in stakes' races, Return To Conquer remained unbeaten in four starts: Group 1 Sistema Stakes (1200m), Group 3 Colin Jillings 2YO Classic (1200m), Group 3 Matamata Slipper (1200m), and the Listed Counties Challenge Stakes (1100m).

He became a finalist for Champion Two-Year-Old, won by stable-mate La Dorada, who included the $1 million Karaka Millions 2YO and Group 1 Manawatu Sires’ Produce Stakes in her victories. 

“We thought he was the best Snitzel colt in the Magic Millions' sale when we bought him and could not fault him in anyway,” Ellis said. 

“There was some very spirited bidding, but we were able to secure him, and he turned out to be a terrific colt.

“Unfortunately, he has been able to race as a three-year-old due to injury sustained in a jump out, but he’s by the right sire (Snitzel) and has the right pedigree to make a stallion. We are delighted that there are a number interested parties in standing him, and you can understand why, he is a magnificent physically well built and attractive individual.”

Return To Conquer created a milestone for Te Akau when winning the Group 1 Sistema Stakes, recording the stable's 100th Group One victory, on Champions' Day - the biggest day in New Zealand racing history (overall stakes of $8.2 million) at Ellerslie.

Return To Conquer is by four-time Champion Sire and four-time Champion Two-Year-Old Sire Snitzel (Redoute’s Choice), who is regarded as a breed shaping stallion, like his sire Redoute’s Choice and grandsire Danehill, and whose highest priced yearling colt sold for A$2.8 million. 

Snitzel is an incredible sire of sires, with six of his sons already siring Group One winners, and Return To Conquer is set to follow in the footsteps of another Snitzel colt bought by David Ellis, Sword Of State. he was a Group One winning, Champion Two-Year-Old that has made a wonderful start with his first crop of two-year-olds and recently topped the Karaka 2026 – Book 1 Sale with a $1.1 million colt. 

Described by his riders as a “freak of a horse” and “an absolute machine”, Return To Conquer looked very good winning all three trials before racing, and confirmed that promise when drawing out to win the Listed Counties Challenge Stakes on debut. He quickened clear to score with authority in the Group 3 Colin Jillings 2YO Classic, and sustained a strong gallop to win the Group 3 Matamata Slipper, before culminating his season winning the Group One Sistema Stakes in the hands of Champion Australian jockey Blake Shinn.

“He was a great athlete and it was the first time my 30-year training career that I’d started a two-year-old first-up in a Listed race and he duly won it,” said Mark Walker.

“Every one of his four starts was in a stakes' race and to win them all shows the calibre of race horse that he was.

“Winning the Group One was the highlight, on such a big day at Ellerslie, and to record the 100th Group One for the stable was incredibly special.

“We thought he was well up to Melbourne class, hence we took him our stable at Cranbourne. However he unfortunately injured himself in his first jump out in the spring and we weren’t able to get him back to the races, despite our very best attempts.

“He had an unbelievable temperament for a colt, had a huge anaerobic capacity, was very clean-winded, and was always an absolute gentleman to deal with.

“I think he’ll make a high-class sire and he reminds me so much of Sword Of State. He has a similar brain, similar action, and we look forward to watching the progress of his stud career.”

The dam of Return To Conquer, Vaujany (Lonrho), although unraced, is a three-quarter sister to six-time Australian sprint winner Andermatt (Snitzel), who stakes' placed on three occasions, while his grand-dam Portillo, by sensationally fast juvenile Red Ransom (Roberto), won the Group 2 Surround Stakes (1400m) and finished runner-up in the Group 1 Flight Stakes (1600m) as a three-year-old filly, while winning three times to 1400 metres, and has left five individual winners of 12 races.

Consistently among the Top 10 Broodmare Sires List in Australia, with daughters producing over 100 stakes’ winners, dam sire Lonhro (Octagonal) was Champion Three-Year-Old, Champion Miler, Horse of the Year, and was a simply outstanding Australian racehorse that won 11 Group Ones. 

Owned by the Te Akau 2024 Stallion Breeding Syndicate (Mgr: Karyn Fenton-Ellis MNZM), Return To Conquer has a Danzig (Northern Dancer) cross on the sire line of Snitzel and dam line of Vaujany.