- Underwood trainer Heath Szczypka can always find a handy ex-Victorian pacer that can work their way through the grades, and his recent stable addition, Hypersonic Drive is certainly fitting that category after the gelding won his second race since joining Szcyypka at the Devonport Showgrounds last night.
Driver Todd Rattray positioned Hypersonic Drive one-out and three-back before racing three-wide and two-back from the 1200-metre mark.
The gelded son of The Warp Drive swept to the lead at the top of the home straight and was too good for favourite punters in the home straight to score by 1.6-metres over Mach Charm with Stylish Trend a further 6.4-metres away third.
Szczypka said after the race that the horse found his way into his stable after having success for a number of the large ownership group previously.
“I have raced horses for the owners previously, including his mother, Blacktie Affair,” said the winning trainer about the mare who won four races in his care.
Some of those owners include Rodney and Danny Hehir and Shane Waller who were all in the ownership of The Warp Drive, the sire of Hypersonic Drive.
“I thought the track was a bit leader bias and a bit heavy so I thought the win was good,” said the winning trainer.
Although being a five-year-old, Hypersonic Drive has been lightly raced, only have 28-starts, being kept on the sideline for a year.
“He did sustain an injury to his hock which got infected and he needed 12-months off, so he is a little bit immature in what he is doing on the track,” explained Szczypka.
The trainer will try and keep the pacer to suitable races over the coming months.
“My next project will be to get him away from a standing start, which I don’t think will be much of an issue,” added Szczypka.
“I think the standing starts over the summer months will be a better option for him,” said the Underwood based trainer.
Hypersonic Drive was the first leg of a driving double for Todd Rattray who trained and drove the last race winner Kuzma, who scored by 9.7-metres.
Ben Yole trained a double on the card with The Lemondrop Kid who won well over Pushkin and Macray Muchacho in race two while Somedan justified his short quote later in the night in a 64 to 70 rated event.
Frankie Falzoni won his first race since January 2018 with an all the way win in the opening race for horses with a national rating of 45 to 45, while Alta Surreal was too good for Northview Dave and Chilla Breeze in the claiming race on the card.
Watch Alta Surreal winning Race 5, the CUB Claimer: