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By Graeme White

Leading jockey Grant Buckley will be back aboard From The Bush as the early favourite attempts to win another feature race in the $40,000 Ray White Emms Mooney Bathurst Cup (1800m) on Sunday.

The leading contender ($4.80 favourite on TAB) won the Forbes Cup in August and has also finished second in the Narromine Cup and was a last-start fifth in the Dubbo Cup with Anthony Cavallo in charge.

Buckley guided From The Bush to victory in a Randwick Highway in July and trainer Gayna Williams believes the galloper is ready to figure again. From The Bush finished behind placegetters Reward Seeker and Fast Talking last time out and he again faces that duo on Sunday.

“He got back a bit further than normal last start and it was also a month between starts,” Williams said. “The horse has been in training for a while and each time you think he may need a spell he keeps on producing a good run.

“He appears to still be thriving so I can’t see any reason why he won’t run well.”

From The Bush is the type of galloper any syndicate would love to race with a record of five wins, three seconds and a third from 13 starts for prize money of $128,000. The five-year-old by Poet’s Voice is also well named as From The Bush is a poem by famous poet Henry Lawson.

Williams is pleased From The Bush ended up in her care and has been able to progress to country cup class. With so many feature country cups coming up over the spring, From The Bush will race on after seven starts this campaign.

“He is very tough and shows a lot of courage. He is an easy horse to train and eats well so that makes my job a bit better,” she added. “He is going as well as ever and has been extremely consistent.”

From The Bush’s main opposition will come from Reward Seeker ($7.50), Fast Talking ($7) and Fields Of Honour ($5). Fast Talking’s trainer Kody Nestor ran second in the Cup last year with Toulon Brook.

Shadow Girl ($9.50) is a last start winner at Hawkesbury for trainer Garry White who has only given the mare two starts under his care. The five-year-old is rarely far from the placings and will be ridden by leading country jockey Matthew Cahill.

Williams has tried a couple of times to win the Bathurst Cup, but so far it has eluded her: “It’s going to be a hard enough race to win as it is a very even field,” she said.

Meanwhile, her promising galloper Tags will return to training shortly with the Country Championships his major goal. The other feature race at Bathurst is the $80,000 Panorama (1300m) where Man Of Peace drops back from Saturday Sydney grade.

Man Of Peace is the early TAB favourite at $3.70 with a replacement jockey to be found. Kateru ($17) has won his past two starts and could start now that Matthew Palmer has been named as a late replacement rider.

Trainer Mark Schmetzer was considering starting Kateru in the Denman or Muswellbrook Cups, but with a late rider announced the in-form galloper may run on Sunday. Kateru got the better of Partners ($13) to win his latest start at Dubbo and the pair should again be prominent in the highest prizemoney race on the program.

There will be eight races with the track rated a Good 4 for the Showcase meeting where the minimum prizemoney is $30,000 per race. A total of $300,000 prizemoney will be on offer for the biggest meeting of the year at Bathurst.

View the final fields with full form & race replays for Bathurst here