Talented gelding Exit Fee returned to winning form with a late lunge to take out the A$120,000 TAB Highway Handicap (1200m) at Randwick on Saturday.
Although he had gone winless in eight runs dating back to another Highway Handicap victory at Rosehill in February of 2025, Exit Fee had performed creditably in between times with two seconds, a third, two fifths and a sixth.
The four-year-old had made a promising start to his latest campaign, impressing in two trials at Goulburn in April before catching the eye with a strong-finishing second in his resuming run at Gosford on May 9.
Exit Fee was sent out as a $3.20 favourite for Saturday’s assignment and took up a handy position just behind the leaders.
He had a wall of horses in front of him coming into the home straight, but jockey Adam Hyeronimus found a way through with 175m to run. Exit Fee charged through on the inside of Wayburn and snatched victory by a half-head.
“We had to deal with the cards we’d been dealt,” Hyeronimus said. “We were in a tricky position, but I always banked on it opening up – it was just a case of when. The horses I was following were always going to drop off, it was a matter of which one went first.
“When it happened, we were able to burst through and arrive just in time.”
Bought for A$105,000 from Wentwood Grange’s draft at the 2023 Magic Millions Adelaide Yearling Sale, Exit Fee has now had 16 starts for three wins, five placings and A$244,150 in stakes.
There have been a few hard-luck stories along the way for Exit Fee and his trainer Danny Williams, who was resigned to more of the same halfway up the home straight on Saturday.
“I thought we were a shot duck,” Williams said. “He’d lost all of his momentum when everything else was at their top, so I thought we were gone with 58kg on a testing surface.
“He’s been a bit of a victim of circumstances behind the scenes, we haven’t had a lot of luck with him. He’s come back in really good form. His trials were good leading into that first-up run at Gosford.”
Exit Fee was bred by the Hawkins family’s Llanhennock Trust and is by Ten Sovereigns out of the Stravinsky mare Vinzky, who won two races and is a granddaughter of the Gr.1 VRC Oaks (2500m) winner Tristanagh.
Vinzky is the dam of four winners including El Milagro, whose 10 victories included the Listed Kranji Sprint (1200m). – NZ Racing Desk.
