After buying two yearlings by first season sire Contributer (High Chaparral) in January at Karaka, Te Akau principal David Ellis secured another at the 2019 Gold Coast National Yearling Sale.
A filly from the first crop of Champion Australian Middle Distance Horse of the Year Contributer (High Chaparral), a dual Group One winner of the Chipping Norton (Gr. 1, 1600m) and Ranvet Stakes (Gr. 1, 2000m). His sire, High Chaparral (Sadler’s Wells), winner of six Group One races including the English and Irish Derbies, has sired 23 individual Group One winners of over 50 races internationally and already a noted sire of sires.
“We’re really excited by the stock of Contributer,” said Te Akau principal David Ellis. “He was a pretty exciting racehorse and I think a great chance of making it as a sire. The two we bought in January are breaking in really well and he’s a really good addition to the New Zealand stallion industry.”
“Mapperley breed top horses and they’ve thought so much of this filly all the way through that they’ve retained a share.”
Dam, Bella Carolina, won three times to 1400 metres and her three foals to date have all raced. Tennessee (Per Incanto) won the Wellesley Stakes (Listed, 1000m) at her second start and finished fourth in both the Eclipse Stakes (Gr. 3, 1200m) and Diamond Stakes (Gr. 1, 1200m) as a two-year-old. While He’s McCaw and Maestro, both by He’s Remarkable (Pentire), have, respectively, placed five times in the Australia, and once in Singapore.
In addition, the dam sires in her pedigree are some of the best to ever stand in New Zealand: Champion Sire O’Reilly and in turn Centaine and Noble Bijou. While through her sire lines, the filly carries a cross of immortal sire Northern Dancer.
“She’s a really nice medium sized filly with lovely markings, that walked well, from a good family, with a great line-up of sires on her dam side,” Ellis said. “The mare has already left a stakes performer at two and she was later sold for a high price ($260,000) at the Inglis Chairman’s Sale in Sydney, so the family has already taken a significant step.”
Ellis said the filly will head home to be broken in at Te Akau Stud.
Simms Davison (Mapperley Stud) said: “She’s a lovely filly, always been my pick of the yearlings and a staff favourite all the way through. She’s a nice athletic type and always had a presence in the paddock from an early age, even as weanling there was something sexy about her.
“I’m glad she’s going to be trained by Jamie (Richards) at Te Akau and I’m happy that another nice Contributer filly has gone to David Ellis because he’s our biggest buyer and its good exposure for the stallion to have progeny in a top stable where they will get every chance.”
The King of Karaka, Ellis has been leading buyer for the past fourteen years at the New Zealand Bloodstock National Yearling Sales Series. But success has not stopped there as his acquisitions from the Gold Coast Yearling Sales attest: Princess Coup (Encosta De Lago), Tell A Tale (Tale of the Cat), Costa Viva (Encosta De Lago), and Integrate (Iglesia).
No New Zealand horse won more in domestic stakes than Princess Coup ($4.1 million). She was named Champion 3YO, NZB Filly of the Year, Champion Middle Distance Performer (twice) and Champion Stayer before selling as a broodmare for $3m in Australia. Similarly, Ellis bought Group One performer Integrate from the Gold Coast Sale, costing $11,000 she won almost $700,000 before being sold for a major sum to Japan.
While 2000 Guineas (Gr. 1, 1600m) winner Tell A Tale and 1000 Guineas winner Costa Viva were both graduates of Gold Coast Yearling Sales – the latter subsequently selling as a broodmare for $400,000 in Australia.
