As the founder and boss of Te Akau he has syndicated hundreds of horses and been the most prolific buyer with New Zealand bloodstock for at least the past decade and as a serious player well before that.
That includes buying and/or managing champions like Imperatriz, Probabeel, Melody Belle and too many more to name.
Ellis has also nurtured outstanding trainers and staff and been a key mentor in the development of some of our best jockeys.
As for attracting owners into the industry, you would need a calculator and a free weekend to add up how many new owners he has encouraged into getting a share in a horse.
“To be named in the Hall Of Fame, alongside legends like the late Colin Jillings and Dave O’Sullivan and so many more wonderful people, is very humbling,” Ellis told the Herald.
“There are so many people I couldn’t have done it without, most importantly my wife Karyn who has helped take the business to a whole new level.
“Then all the people who have given me advice and help along the way, a guy like Joe Walls [bloodstock expert] who taught me so much about what to look for when buying a horse.
“And we have had some tremendous staff as well as trainers like Mark Walker who has been with me since he left school.”
As for the horses, any win seems to mean a lot to Te Akau, which will cheer home a Rating 65 win while waiting for one of its horses to start in a $1 million race 20 minutes later.
“One horse who meant a lot to me was Distinctly Secret,” says the 71-year-old.
“He won the Kelt Capital worth $750,000 when I really needed the money and started in three Caulfield Cups.
“We bred him and eventually sold his dam and some of his siblings and he was a huge help in getting me on my feet.”
“But there have been so many others. Along with the obvious ones like Imperatriz, who was such a champion, horses like Burgundy, Darci Brahma and Gingernuts were wonderful.
“But we got an enormous thrill out of Captured By Love winning the 1000 Guineas this year. Winning those classics means so much to so many people.”
Ellis gets a different thrill as he sees one of his reps today in Cool Aza Rene (R3, No 2) start favourite in the $175,000 Wellesley Challenge Stakes at Trentham, a race in which another Ellis purchase, Marokopa Falls, is rated the biggest danger.
“A horse like Cool Aza Rene I bought her sire Cool Aza Beel, we won a Karaka Million with him, turning him into a stallion and now we are able to own one of his daughters who is a very exciting filly.
“To see that sort of legacy from what I started when I registered my colours in 1977 or bought my first horse myself in 1984 is very satisfying.
“But I simply couldn’t have achieved any of that without so many people helping me.”
Trentham is the major meeting in the country today, with the Eulogy Stakes for the 3-year-old fillies, Manawatū Challenge Stakes for the weight-for-age sprinter-milers and the Manawatū Cup for the stayers.
True to form, Ellis and Te Akau have a representative in all four features.
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.
