Mike Azzie leads in Ready To Charge (JC Photos). 

The Mike and Adam Azzie-trained two-year-old Gimmethegreenlight colt Ready To Charge had a Drakenstein Stud-bred Lancaster Bomber half-brother on the BSA National Yearling Sale, so his easy 2,75 length victory on debut on Thursday at The Vaal over 1100m under JP van der Merwe was timely.

Ready to Charge is out of the Australian-bred Charge Forward mare San Fermin, who was believed to be something special by Mike Azzie and many others when displaying an electric turn of foot from the back of the field on debut over 1400m at Turffontein in November 2017 and winning by seven lengths.

She started favourite for the Grade 3 Fillies Mile two-and-a-half weeks later, but was unplaced and in the end her sole Graded victory amongst five career wins was in the Grade 3 Sycamore Sprint over 1160m.

Ready To Charge is small in stature, like his mother, and JP van der Merwe said he jumped a bit “sluggishly”, but responded instantly when asked to get back into the race. He led and kicked again at the 400m and was never going to be caught. It was a field made up largely of first-timers, but the favourite Open Highway had made a decent debut and he beat him by 5,50 lengths. Furthermore, he did it from draw one, which might well have been the harder side of the track to win from on the day.

Mike Azzie did the interview and hinted Ready To Charge might go down to KZN for a SA Champions Season campaign.

His Lancaster Bomber half-brother was Lot 48 on the BSA National Yearling Sale’s Friday session and was purchased for R425,000 … by Azzie Racing.