One of New Zealand's best milers is going to have to put in a longer shift at Trentham tomorrow but trainer Roger James thinks Hypnos is up to the task.
Last season's Couplands Mile winner steps up to 2100m, the longest race of his career, in the $80,000 Trentham Stakes after James and training partner Robert Wellwood started to run out of suitable options for the six-year-old.
"He is just not quite a true weight-for-age horse and we have always wanted to step him back up in distance," says James.
"With the set weights and penalty conditions it looks a good opportunity as he only gets 57kgs."
Hypnos has been consistent racing in the 1400-1600m range for much of the last two years but ran second to Beauden in the 2000m Canterbury Gold Cup last April before a Melbourne campaign where he ran third over 2000m at Flemington.