David Ellis and Te Akau Racing spent over $5million on 17 yearlings at the Magic Millions Yearling Sale earlier this year and they unleashed their first winner from the group at Avondale on Wednesday.
Stakes targets await promising juvenile With A Vengeance following his debut victory in the Tulloch Café 2YO (1000m) .
The son of Exceed And Excel had shown plenty of promise at the trials, winning both of his heats in the lead-up to his debut outing, and trainers Mark Walker and Sam Bergerson were delighted to see him realise that potential on raceday.
With A Vengeance jumped well and was taken straight to the front by jockey Craig Grylls, who set the pace up front, and With A Vengeance proved too strong for his rivals in the concluding stages to win by a length over Sugar Lump.
“He was very professional, a lovely colt, and a beautiful type,” Grylls said. “He bounced away and put himself right there. He wanted to lay out around the home turn a bit but once he straightened up, he put them away quite nicely.
“He’s a really beautiful colt and has got a good action, so I think when he gets on top of the ground he’ll lengthen nicely too. I’m looking forward to seeing what he does in the future.”
Walker was pleased with what he saw and he was delighted the colt was able to score on debut for his connections.
“He’s been really well educated and it was good to see him win first-up,” Walker said. “He did everything right and at the 200m he shifted into another gear to win nicely. It was really pleasing to see and exciting for the owners to see him do that on debut.
“He’s got a great bunch of owners, and I really liked the way he put his ears back and attacked the line today.
“He wasn’t expensive for an Exceed And Exceed colt (purchased by Te Akau principal for A$240,000 on the Gold Coast), given he’s been a Champion Sire and incredible stallion worldwide.
“We’ll probably give him a little break now and head towards the Counties Challenge Stakes (Listed, 1100m) on 22 November at Pukekohe.”
With a Vengeance was plucked from the Widden Stud draft and is the first winner for Eleusa, a winning half-sister by Medaglia D'Oro (USA) to stakes-winner Maternal from four time Group I winner Divine Madonna with the family also producing Group II winner Tentyris. – LOVERACING.NZ News Desk
