GAYNA Williams not only returned home with victory in Saturday's $100,000 TAB Highway Handicap at Randwick, thanks to From The Bush's determined frontrunning effort, but fantastic performances from her other two competitors Tags and Zoo Station.
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From The Bush ($8) was taken to the front straight away by Grant Buckley and never relented the advantage, taking out the $46,000 top prize a length ahead of Casino Kid ($5, Rachel King) and Bathurst stablemate Tags ($8, Kerrin McEvoy).
Zoo Station had to drop back to the tail of the field in the early stages but flew home down the middle of the Randwick straight over the final 200m to finish an eye-catching sixth.
It was a sensational overall performance for Williams' trio and the Bathurst trainer couldn't speak highly enough of their respective efforts.
"They all went well. They all were working well and were on the mark heading down to the race so it was just a case of how the race panned out and how they went in transit," Williams said.
"We ended up being very, very pleased with all three of them.
"Grant Buckley was committed to going forward early, due to the heavy track, and Tags has a bit of a tendency to miss the jump so took the blinkers off him in the hope that he'd jump better.
"Kerrin had seen his runs and he knew what he had to do to get him out and racing. He dug him up and he jumped very well and put himself into the race where he was very good on the speed.
"We thought Zoo Station would get back from the barrier but we didn't think she'd be back that far. Regan [Bayliss] didn't really have an option though."
The win was the biggest and most lucrative for Williams this year, and follows Zoo Station's Highway Handicap victory just a fortnight earlier.
"I Am A Cool Kid has won a Highway race down there, so did Zoo Station recently, but this was probably the most satisfying one because I had three of them in the race and they all performed well," she said.
The win sees From The Bush move to a career record of four wins from 10 starts. He's now less than $5,000 away from cracking six figures in prizemoney.
From The Bush now boasts a record of two wins and a runner-up finish on heavy tracks.
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