Ellsberg a Significant Sire Addition to Victoria

Bombora Downs, on Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula, has made a significant strategic addition to its roster for the 2025 season, unveiling Group 1-winning multiple Group winner Ellsberg as its newest stallion. Renowned for being both competitive and consistent across his racing career, Ellsberg arrives with credentials that point to high potential in the breeding shed. Over the Easter long weekend, reminders of his quality came thick and fast – first through a family connection when Mutasalem took out the Listed Albury Gold Cup. The gelding is out of Miss Dodwell, also the dam of Ellsberg’s ill-fated sire Spill The Beans, a son of Snitzel who headed the 2025 Inglis Easter Sale. Then, last Saturday, as the Gr1 All Aged Stakes unfolded, memories of Ellsberg’s brave third behind Cascadian and Tofane in the 2022 edition reignited interest in his elite-level form. Winning on debut as a 3YO, across the season he started 9 times (4 at stakes level) for 3 wins (including a Listed win), 3 seconds and multiple Group placings. Overall, Ellsberg compiled an admirable race record of 24 starts for nine wins, six placings and four thirds, earning $3.3 million, highlighted by a Spring campaign that underlined his toughness and turn of foot. He resumed in the Gr2 Theo Marks where he endured a horror run but was still beaten just a length. He then backed up his Gr2 Shannon Stakes effort with a brilliant dead-heat victory in the time-tested Gr1 Epsom Handicap over a mile at Randwick. From there, he outclassed import Sibaaq in the $1 million Diamond Prelude before stepping beyond his preferred trip to win the $2 million 1800m Five Diamonds in track-record time, capping his career with a three-race winning streak. A natural sprinter-miler, Ellsberg’s pedigree screams speed, with his first three dams sired by General Nediym, Zoffany and Biscay. Thrown into Group company at just his third start where he placed, he announced himself relatively early as a serious racehorse with a runner-up finish in the $500,000 Silver Eagle, followed by finishing in a bunched group in the $7.5 million Golden Eagle where he started among the top fancies at $5. Ellsberg’s early race career form hinted at the depth and durability that would define his career, making him an enticing proposition for breeders seeking early-running talent and versatility across a range of distances. Having already covered two books of mares in New South Wales across the past two seasons, Ellsberg now relocates to Victoria, standing at Bombora Downs for a competitive fee of $7,700. Offered through Segenhoe Stud at the Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale, where he fetched $280,000 as a high quality physical specimen, the son of Spill The Beans now begins his second act – bringing to the table proven Group-class performance, a speed-laden pedigree and a compelling case to be a commercial success at stud.