HORSE RACING
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Hypernicus shapes as one horse to keep a close eye on at Canterbury today and Kembla Grange trainer Theresa Bateup is in no doubt as to his quality.
"He's definitely going to be a Sydney-class horse," she said of the four-year-old which will contest a no-metro wins handicap over 1550 metres.
"We're probably looking at him as a bit of a winter horse.
"The plan at this stage is to give him only one or two more then give him another break."
The slow-to-mature Hypernicus won on debut at Newcastle at huge odds in June and resumed with a close-up second behind Reply Churlish at Hawkesbury.
Reply Churlish has since posted an impressive four straight wins, including a bold front-running effort in town last time out.
Bateup said she had a slight doubt about starting Hypernicus because of another bad draw. It was a wide draw which prevented Scott Pollard from urging the horse to victory at Randwick on Boxing Day.
"He was a victim of circumstance," Bateup said. "That's my only query about going around at Canterbury as I would have liked to have drawn a nice gate.
"He's like a little puppy dog at home and is just one of those no fuss horses at the stables," she said.
"He's just taking that bit of time [to mature]."