Ellis living the ‘Naki dream

By Joshua Smith, Harness News Desk

Brodie Ellis injected a dose of youth into the Central Districts training ranks two years ago when taking out his license as a fresh-faced 21-year-old, and he has no intention of leaving the region any time soon.

While his colours are yet to enter the winner’s circle, Ellis said he is having the time of his life living out his dream as a harness racing trainer.

He caught the racing bug off his great uncle, the late Keith Chittenden, a stalwart of the harness racing community in Taranaki, and he has continued his legacy.

“Keith Chittenden is my great uncle and I went to his place as a kid every weekend and I never stopped,” Ellis said.

While Ellis spent his weekend’s helping out Chittenden, he was also one of the trailblazers of the kidz kartz scene in the region, being one of the first graduates.

“We started it in Taranaki, my brother and I were the first kids to go through it. It seems to be going alright now eight years later,” Ellis said.

Ellis has a bit of an entrepreneurial streak, running his own business and growing a rental property portfolio to help finance his passion for racing.

“I run my own car valet business. It pays for the horses and it means I can go to the races whenever I like. It is a pretty sweet lifestyle,” he said.

“Myself and my partner have done a fair bit over the last few years and have set ourselves up now, we have got two houses. Hopefully it will help me get my own property when I get a bit bigger.

“The goal would be doing more of the horses than the car cleaning in the future.”

While Ellis has aspirations of training a larger team, he is happy working his two horses, which will both start at Manawatu Raceway on Tuesday.

Stable newcomer Crimson Rain will have her first start in Ellis’ colours after he purchased her off standardbred.gavelhouse.com last month for $700.

The daughter of Auckland Reactor won her last start for former trainer Scott Dickson at Palmerston North last month, but Ellis said he is just wanting to get a gauge on his mare when she contests the Festival Gold Cup 1st April Mobile Pace (2000m) on Tuesday.

“She is quite a nice horse,” Ellis said. “It is quite a big jump in class on Tuesday, so we will just be seeing how she goes.

“I bought her off gavelhouse and there are a couple of new owners involved in her. She looked to be quite a nice horse and we got a bit of a bargain getting her.”

Ellis has reserved expectations with stablemate Carse O Fern Cully in the Outback Trading Company (Grad Series) Heat 2 Mobile Pace (2000m).

“He starts his farewell tour,” Ellis said. “He has got the rest of the Manawatu season and then he will be going off as a happy hack.

“We are not expecting too much but if he races up to his best he would be competitive. We are just ticking him over for now.”

Ellis is expecting another strong support crew for his horses on Tuesday and he is proud to have vocal owners cheering home their charges.

“I love it,” he said. All my owners are first time owners, so it’s pretty cool having new people coming in, and they are all loving it.

“We have the biggest support crew for one of the smallest stables.”