Lightly raced New Zealand-bred colt Militarize stepped up to the big time in spectacular style at Randwick on Saturday with a runaway victory in the A$1 million Gr.1 Inglis Sires’ (1400m).
The son of Dundeel had begun his career with a debut win at Canterbury on February 1, which he followed up with a third in the Gr.2 Todman Stakes (1200m) and an unplaced finish after striking severe interference in the Gr.1 Golden Slipper (1200m).
Militarize went to a whole new level in his fourth career start on Saturday, exploding out of the pack in the hands of visiting jockey Joao Moreira. It was a turn of foot that none of his rivals could match, and the Chris Waller-trained Militarize careered away to score by three and a half lengths.
“His last run, you can forget about that because he was involved in an incident,” Moreira said. “Today he showed his quality.
“He’s such a nice horse. He kind of floated on the surface, which not many horses would be able to do, considering the track is quite heavy today. Getting a good gate, putting himself in the right spot, he was the winner a long way from home.”
From four starts, Militarize has now had two wins, a placing and A$758,400 in stakes.
His Sires’ win continued a remarkable run of two-year-old success for expat New Zealand trainer Chris Waller, who celebrated his first Golden Slipper win with Shinzo two weeks ago. This was also his first win in the Sires’.
“We’ve been going OK without two-year-old winners, but it’s always a talking point for people,” Waller said. “This probably makes the really fast two-year-olds a little more accessible to us, because often people would buy a portfolio of horses and say, ‘We’ll give Chris the ones that need a bit of time,’ so it puts us on the back foot to start with. Maybe they’ll give us the fast ones now as well.
“This horse was lucky to stay on his feet in the Golden Slipper, but thankfully all the horses came home safely.
“I wouldn’t say we were confident today, but we knew we had a lovely horse. He’s done a great job, and it’s an absolute honour.
“He was a horse we considered just needed a little bit of time and we haven’t put him under too much pressure to get anywhere. His early races have all been very encouraging, even when he got beaten here in the small field (in the Todman Stakes) – I loved the way he ran the last 100m. He still got through the line and to me, showed that this was a nice race for him. The Golden Slipper was a step on that path.”
Militarize became the fourth New Zealand-bred winner of the Sires’ since 1990, following on from Rhythmic Charm (1990), Tristalove (1993), Octagonal (1995) and Alf (1998).
He is the sixth individual Group One winner for his sire, former New Zealand Horse of the Year Dundeel – joining Yourdeel, Castelvecchio, Truly Great, Atyaab and Super Seth. Dundeel is the sire of 246 winners overall from 411 runners, with 23 black-type winners.
Militarize was bred by Jonathan Munz’s GSA Bloodstock Limited and is out of the British-bred mare Amerindia, who foaled Militarize at Haunui Farm in New Zealand after being sent across the Tasman to be served by Waikato Stud stallion Super Seth in the 2020 breeding season.
Militarize represents the powerful ownership group headed by Newgate Bloodstock and the China Horse Club, along with Sir Owen Glenn’s Go Bloodstock and a host of others. Their colours were also carried by the runner-up in Saturday’s juvenile feature, the Extreme Choice colt Don Corleone.