It was a case of like father, like son at Cambridge on Wednesday when Davey Ellis recorded his first training win courtesy of Spectrier (NZ) (Vadamos) in the in the Cambridge Equine Hospital 1550.
Ellis, 40, is the son of Te Akau Racing principal David Ellis, who as well as founding and operating the thoroughbred behemoth, also trained at the turn of the century, recording three victories in the 2000/01 season.
Ellis junior has been surrounded by horses his entire life and said his passion for the animal began on the rolling hill country of Te Akau Stud.
“I grew up on Dad’s sheep station and I was saddling my ponies to go and see my mates and getting the sheep in down off the hills,” he said.
While Ellis started to follow in his father’s footsteps into the racing industry, he found a career as a farrier more alluring, and has followed that path after working for numerous trainers on both sides of the Tasman.
“I have worked for well over 30 different trainers before I started shoeing horses,” Ellis said.
“I have worked for pretty much every trainer in Matamata and lots of trainers in Cambridge. I have worked in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane.”
While he enjoyed his time in racing stables, the lifestyle of a full-time trainer didn’t appeal, and he pursued his farrier apprenticeship under Kym Hughes and Malcolm Telfer.
“With the lifestyle, you have to be pretty dedicated to be a full-time trainer,” Ellis said. “With family life, shoeing horses you can be done by 2pm on a Friday afternoon and have the rest of the weekend to do as you please, and I have got a lot of other hobbies as well.”
Racing will always be in the blood for Ellis, and he has enjoyed training Spectrier before work every morning.
“This is only my second horse I have trained, so this is just a hobby for me. He is the only horse I have in work, it is just a little bit of fun. I more enjoy just training the horse really,” he said.
Ellis was rapt to get the win on Wednesday, with Spectrier having finished runner-up first-up at the track earlier this month.
“He went a good second in his first-up run and he had improved a little bit through the week,” he said.
Spectrier was initially purchased as a weanling by David Ellis senior out of Rich Hill Stud’s 2019 New Zealand Bloodstock May Yearling Sale draft for $80,000 and found his way to his son’s care after he didn’t meet the mark at Te Akau Racing.
“Dad bought him as a weanling and they (Te Akau) trained him, but he wasn’t going too well for them. I liked the look of the horse and decided to take him on,” Ellis said.
Ellis said he does all the work with the horse, which made Wednesday’s victory all the more enjoyable.
“I ride his trackwork and strap him, I do the whole thing,” he said. “If my horse goes somewhere I have got to take him.”
