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By Ray Hickson

Next year’s Country Championships is trainer Danny Williams’ supreme aim for talented three-year-old Exit Fee but in the short term he’s considering whether he needs to tackle Saturday’s TAB Highway (1200m) at Rosehill.

Trainer Danny Williams

The Goulburn trainer said Exit Fee, an eye-catching first-up second two weeks ago, would only have a limited campaign as he doesn’t feel he’s seasoned enough to be a contender for The Kosciuszko this year.

He feels Rosehill can be quite testing when it’s heavy and will wait to assess the field, the draw and the likely improvement in the ground before allowing him to run.

“I think he will get through the going but do we want to run him on a bottomless track this early in his preparation, that’s the consideration going into Saturday,’’ Williams said.

“There is a Class 2 in a couple of weeks we can put him in and put a claim on him. We don’t have to panic.

“Ultimately we would aim him at the Country Championships next year. We think he’s improved this preparation to his previous, he’s come on from the run and he’s come up really well.”

Exit Fee, $2.80 with TAB on Wednesday, found himself a little further back than Williams hoped when he resumed with a closing half length second to Calico Miss at Randwick.

But he said in the long run it wasn’t a bad way for him to kick off the preparation as he did everything right in transit and it came down to the winner just having that break on him when he was needing to get clear.

“We rode him a bit conservatively because he can get running in his races, which has been highlighted first-up previously,’’ he said.

“When he doesn’t get cover he charges so it put us back a length or two further back than we needed to. He just needs to take that top off him to make him more settled in his races.

“He always improves with a run or two, he normally takes a couple of runs to reach his peak.”

If Exit Fee doesn’t run it would aid stablemate Everlasting Stars in making her way into the field though she is fifth in the list of eight emergencies for the Highway.

It’s not been an ideal build up to the mare’s first Highway appearance, she was due to run alongside Exit Fee two weeks ago but those plans went awry when she got her leg caught in the gates and was scratched at barriers from a race at Goulburn on June 13.

“It’s a bit of a setback you don’t want to see in a preparation,’’ he said.

“We had her entered at Randwick a couple of weeks ago but she didn’t recover quick enough. We’d aimed at trying to get her to a Highway and that race (at Goulburn) was a bit of a goal to run her two weeks ago.”

So it’s been six weeks since her last start where she finished third at Goulburn in a 1000m Class 3 after missing the start where Williams said he learned a lot about her, it was only her third start for him, that he’s put into place.

And he said on her second-up fourth behind Hellbent On You in a 1250m race at Kensington on a heavy track he sees no issues with the wet.

“She gets through it quite well, with no weight on, she does excel in the wet,’’ he said.

Exit Fee runs second at Randwick on June 21

“She’s done well, she worked well on Tuesday, and we’re confident given her run on the Kenso she can get the trip."

Meanwhile, promising gelding Highway Strip will trial at Canberra on Friday as he nears a start to his campaign after a minor issue put an end to his Country Championships hopes.

He’s an $11 chance in early markets on The Kosciuszko and Williams said he could resume as soon as Saturday week but he’ll be monitoring the weather before committing as there are options at Highway level and above in the coming weeks.

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