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By Ray Hickson

It wasn’t that long ago Tony and Calvin McEvoy brought an up and comer called Half Yours to Sydney for a stopover on the way to something better and they’d like to think Mr Verse can follow the same trajectory.

Half Yours was headed north when he won at Rosehill at the end of May and ran second a couple of weeks later before taking out the Caloundra Cup.

Stablemate Mr Verse is on his way south, after a first-up Sunshine Coast win, but Calvin McEvoy said the Stuart MacDermid Handicap (1500m) at Rosehill on Saturday is a good chance for him to increase his standing.

“I don’t know where he’s going to get to but 72 level is not going to be his ceiling,’’ McEvoy said.

“We think he is a nice horse, he’s very progressive. We had a good opinion of him last prep and he didn’t do much wrong at all.

“He’s owned by a guy from Queensland, so they generally spell up there, and it worked out well that my old man did a few months at the Sunny Coast over the winter with a small team of horses and he kicked off up there.”

Mr Verse, $7 with TAB on Friday, scored what McEvoy regards as a bonus win when he resumed at 1200m two weeks ago.

Mr Verse wins at the Sunshine Coast on July 5

He said he went into that race with plenty of improvement up his sleeve and the decision to put the blinkers on second-up was always on the cards.

“He only had the one trial leading into that run, I don’t think we thought he could win because he only had that one soft trial,’’ he said.

“We thought he’d take a lot of benefit out of it but he showed his class.

“He’s very laid back and only does what he has to and we always thought get the blinkers on second up. But going to a Saturday metro Sydney race we’re trying to get the horse’s rating up.

“This time of year you need to do that to figure in anything in the later part of the spring.”

McEvoy said he’ll leave it to jockey Ashley Morgan to work the race out from his barrier toward the outside at the 1500m start but isn’t keen to have him out of his comfort zone.

“Ash galloped the horse on Tuesday morning and said he worked really well,’’ he said.

“The main thing for the horse is he needs to get into a good rhythm and be comfortable for the first half of the race. When he can do that he unleashes a good turn of foot.

“I think he will be very hard to beat. He galloped well during the week, Ash is confident, I think he can win.”

All the fields, form and replays for Saturday’s Rosehill meeting