Mick On Monday: David Ellis joins legends in Hall of Fame

David Ellis, who has bought 70 horses this season, has been inducted into horse racing's Hall of Fame. Photo / Trish Dunell

After entering New Zealand racing’s most elite club, David Ellis could be excused for allowing himself to slow down a touch.

This will not be happening.

The man who founded and runs syndication and racing giant Te Akau was the most high-profile inductee into racing’s Hall Of Fame at a celebration in Hamilton on Sunday night, with 70 friends and family among his entourage.

For Ellis, it was the greatest honour of his life in racing, with the added bonus that Imperatriz, the champion sprinting mare he bought and syndicated, was also inducted last night.

The pair were joined as new inductees by superstar horses and/or stallions Savabeel, Dundeel, Orchestral and Limerick, champion jockey of the early 1900s Charlie Jenkins, former leading owner Sir Stanley Goosman and Thomas Henry Lowry, who bred and raced Desert Gold.

“For me to be inducted alongside so many of the legends of New Zealand racing is a privilege,” Ellis said.

The honour comes at a time when the Te Akau business has never been busier, even though Ellis was adamant two years ago he was going to buy less horses.

Maybe he meant less than his age, which he narrowly accomplished. Now 71, Ellis purchased 70 horses this season.

“We spent $18.9 million on horses and have about $1m worth of shares left to syndicate.

“It is funny, over the years we have had so many good horses among the last ones we syndicate every season.

“But the business is thriving and we are lucky to have so many great staff and I couldn’t do it without Karyn [his wife], who has taken the business to another level.”

While Te Akau look set to win yet another domestic premiership, it feels like their expansion into Australia has reinvigorated Ellis with the new Cranbourne stable more than doubling in size in the last year.

“We started this season with 28 horses in training at Cranbourne and will start next season [August 1] with 70 horses there now that our second barn has been built.”


Already dubbed the “King of Karaka” because of his huge spending at New Zealand’s home of yearling sales, Ellis is spending up large at Australian sales too and says the make-up of a horse’s ownership is a key driver in which country those yearlings are prepared in.

“Some owners want their horses trained closer to where they live so they can see them race more often and that plays a part in where the start their careers,” says Ellis.

“For example, we have a lovely Wootton Bassett filly out of Avantage [named Avantaggia] who cost us A$2.1 million and she is back here in New Zealand.

“She won a trial at Pukekohe recently and will start her career here in September and be set for the 1000 Guineas,” Ellis said.

“But some horses might start out here and then head to Australia when the targets there suit them.”

That will be the case for one of Te Akau’s brightest stars, Return To Conquer, who was unbeaten in four starts here and having now secured his New Zealand Group 1, he will head to Australia.

“He will go to Cranbourne and be set for group races over there with the main goal to secure an Australian Group 1 which would make him an incredibly valuable stallion.

“So we probably won’t see him here next season but Hostility, who we paid big money for at the Ready To Run last year and is already Group 1 placed, he will be one of our 2000 Guineas horses here.”

Michael Guerin wrote his first nationally published racing articles while still in school and started writing about horse racing and the gambling industry for the Herald as a 20-year-old in 1990. He became the Herald‘s Racing Editor in 1995 and covers the world’s biggest horse racing carnivals.