Haunui graduate scores in Sydney on debut

Militarize as a yearling in 2022.

Two-year-old Militarize, a son of Dundeel, was a fetching debut winner at Canterbury in New South Wales on Wednesday.

The colt, who was sold through Bhima’s Magic Millions draft on behalf of Haunui Farm client GSA Bloodstock, won his race by 1.18l from the fancied Queen Of Dragons and the Savabeel colt Wymark.

So good was the debut that even jockey James McDonald climbed off full of praise, comparing the effort to Castelvecchio’s debut on the same track at the same time of year in 2019.

“This fellow is the spitting image of his old man,” McDonald said, referring to both Castelvecchio and Militarize being sons of Dundeel. “Jeez, that was a smart debut.”

Militarize had been coaxed along patiently by trainer Chris Waller through January. He had two trials under his belt before Wednesday, the latest of which was only last Friday, in which he was a winner.

The obvious conclusion is that the colt will get better as he gets older and goes further, which would be typical of the conclusions on Dundeel progeny, but Charlie Duckworth, Waller’s assistant trainer, said a handful of two-year-old targets were on the table.

“Hopefully we can get towards a Slipper or something like that,” he said. “Every two-year-old race at this time of year is important. He’s a Dundeel so we were expecting him to be a little bit later than he has been, but every time we’ve raised the bar we’ve had a crack at it.”

Raced in partnership by a group of owners that include Trilogy Racing, Newgate Bloodstock and China Horse Club, Militarize was purchased last year at the 2022 Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale when knocked down for $550,000, bought in alliance with Trilogy Racing. -TDN AusNZ