UNRACED as a two-year-old due to setbacks, the highly rated Huntsman made his long-awaited debut in a maiden special weight contest for native-bred three year olds over 7½ furlongs (1,500m) on Saturday, April 15, 2023.

After some exciting morning spins, the connections were expecting something special from Huntsman, and the Key To Power – Dream Point progeny didn’t disappoint, scoring impressively by 17 lengths in an eye-catching time of 1:33.4 (24.0 x 47.1 x 1:12.4).

Trainer Ian Parsard said he may have found another talented runner who could be one of the stable’s future stars.

“Yes, hopefully. I mean, it is important to get the maiden out of the way, and he was able to get experience in this race. Horses came across to him and he never had to rush to really go down as he was able to just stride with them.

“Huntsman moved away with a natural pace at the three-furlong point and then really kicked at the top of the lane. So all in all, this is what you would like to see,” Parsard said in his post-race interview.

Ridden by Reyan Lewis, Huntsman broke well at the start of the race and sat in second place behind Antarctica (Trevor Simpson) leaving the intersection at the 7-furlong (1,400m) marker. Motoring past the 6-furlong (1,200m) point, California Gold (Dane Dawkins) slipped through to take up the running, with Huntsman occupying second place ahead of Antarctica.

Approaching the half-mile (800m) marker, Huntsman surged to the front of the field and began to open up on rivals with every stride taken. Huntsman turned for home with a commanding lead and, while running freely, the chestnut colt went about his business to win by a distance.

Life Is Life (Oshane Nugent) finished the best of the rest in second place, with Joblane (Omar Walker) filling the third spot.

“His [Huntsman’s] preparation has been gingerly, to be honest. He did get a little setback as a two-year-old and we have been just trying to protect him but for the last couple of weeks he really showed us that, it was just time for me to run. So, we gave him good work and he worked well and came out of the work well and so we decided to take our chances here,” Parsard explained.

As to his possible participation in the Classic series of races, Parsard said time will tell if Huntsman will be ready in time.

“Not at this point. We just have to make sure he comes out of this race okay and then we [can] look at the next potential race. If he is good enough, he will be there in the Classic races,” said Parsard.