Te Akau reaches $9 million milestone
Richard Edmunds • June 20th, 2025 8:00 AM • 5 min read
War Of Succession’s victory at Ellerslie earlier this month took runaway trainers’ premiership leaders Mark Walker and Sam Bergerson to heights that have never previously been scaled by a New Zealand stable.
The Te Akau Racing partnership has trained 124 winners in New Zealand this season – putting them 26 ahead of the second-placed Stephen Marsh – and has earned total prize-money of $9,076,995. That makes them the first stable to ever break the $9 million barrier in this country, and they have bettered their own previous national record of $8,253,173 set in the 2022-23 season.
Across-the-board stakes increases have been a contributing factor, along with Te Akau winning three of this season’s five races worth $1 million or more – the $1 million Karaka Millions 2YO with La Dorada, and the $1.5 million Karaka Millions 3YO and inaugural $3.5 million NZB Kiwi with Damask Rose.
The $9 million milestone caps a rewarding few weeks for Te Akau and its principal David Ellis. He was inducted into the New Zealand Racing Hall of Fame last month alongside his 10-time Group One winner Imperatriz, and he has also watched with pride as his 2019-20 champion New Zealand two-year-old Cool Aza Beel has risen into the top four on the Australian first-season sires’ premiership through the deeds of Gr. 1 JJ Atkins and multiple Group Two winner Cool Archie.
“It’s been an amazing few weeks for Te Akau, and being the first stable to win $9 million in a New Zealand season is extremely special,” Ellis told RaceForm. “When you work as hard as our whole team does, a rare milestone like that is incredibly rewarding. Karyn (Fenton-Ellis) and I got a real thrill out of it.
“If you’re not directly involved, you might not quite realise how much a milestone like that means. We’ve bought 74 horses this season, and it’s a massive job – from purchasing the horses to filling the syndicates, all the way through to these horses’ racing careers. We’ve got so many of our existing owners supporting us, along with new ones coming on board, and statistics like these give everybody confidence. When you see the horses we’ve bought this year, you can’t help but think there are even more exciting times coming up.
“We’ve just got the best staff you could imagine, headed by Mark and Sam and backed up by an outstanding team. Sam has just got back from a well-earned holiday and starts again on Wednesday.
“I also want to make special mention of our South Island stable, we’re the leading stable down there and Hunter Durrant does an absolutely world-class job of running that operation.”
Ellis picked out Damask Rose’s stunning last-to-first performance in the inaugural NZB Kiwi on Champions Day at Ellerslie in March as a season highlight, along with continued dominance of New Zealand’s two-year-old features.
“I think winning the first slot race ever run in New Zealand was a particularly big thrill,” Ellis said. “It meant a lot to share that with John Elstob and Denise Bassett, who have been just amazing supporters of our stable and we’ve had great luck together. We’ve won 19 Group Ones for them in the last six years.
“It was also very special to win both the Matamata Breeders’ Stakes and the Matamata Slipper on our home track in February, and then to see the winners – La Dorada and Return To Conquer – go on to take out the Group Ones a few weeks later. La Dorada was also our eighth Karaka Millions 2YO winner in the last nine years.”
Between them, Return To Conquer and La Dorada have won seven of the 15 black-type juvenile races run this season. Return To Conquer put together a perfect four-from-four campaign in the Listed Counties Challenge Stakes, Gr. 3 Colin Jillings 2YO Classic, Gr. 3 Matamata Slipper and Gr. 1 Sistema Stakes, while La Dorada took out the Karaka Millions 2YO, the Gr. 2 Matamata Breeders’ Stakes and the Gr. 1 Manawatu Sires’ Produce Stakes.
Since the inception of the Karaka Millions in 2008, Te Akau Racing is the only stable to win the Karaka Millions, Sistema and Sires’ Produce Stakes in the same season. They have now achieved this feat four times – in 2018 (Avantage in the Karaka Millions and Sires’ Produce Stakes, Sword Of Osman in the Sistema), 2019 (Probabeel in the Karaka Millions, Yourdeel in the Sistema and Sires’ Produce Stakes), 2021 (On The Bubbles in the Karaka Millions and Sires’ Produce Stakes, Sword Of State in the Sistema) and 2025.
Turning the page and looking ahead to the 2025-26 season, Ellis identified the likely spring targets for some of Te Akau’s top-liners.
“Damask Rose is going to race in Australia in the spring, with her main goal being the Golden Eagle at Rosehill in November,” he said. “Return To Conquer will race in Melbourne, where he’ll be set for big three-year-old races like the Caulfield Guineas or Coolmore Stud Stakes.
“La Dorada and the very promising colt Hostility will race in New Zealand, with spring campaigns built around the 1000 and 2000 Guineas.”
