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By Adrian Sciglitano

Trainer Danny Williams may have lost his leading Evergreen Turf Country Championships hope Highway Strip to a niggling foot issue so he is now turning to Kreon to step up in Saturday's TAB Highway (1200m) at Royal Randwick.

Danny Williams had intentions of running Highway Strip on Saturday, with Jason Collett booked to ride, but had to make the unfortunate decision not to accept after Highway Strip pulled up “average” after a gallop on Wednesday morning.

“He has had an old abscess grow out of his foot and it’s just grown down into his heel and his heel has collapsed,” Williams said.

Grey galloper Kreon (Nick Heywood) bolts in at Goulburn. Image by Bradley Photographers

“He has still got a lot to offer with the way he has had to carry that little bit of a foot injury throughout this preparation.

“I have just decided to pull the pin with him and his whole preparation.”

Williams will turn to Kreon ($9 on TAB), his talented son of Rulership, in Saturday’s Highway with the trainer hoping the four-year old can realise the potential he has always shown at home.

“I don’t think there is a lot between him and Highway Strip,” said Williams. “I think the horse is going really well and it is the first time he has drawn a decent gate in his whole career.

"I think from that gate he should have a really good run in the race and I think he is going to be very hard to beat.

“He has just been a bit of an unlucky horse and we are yet to see his full potential. It has been in our program to give him three runs going into the Country Championships.”

Kreon will present third-up on Saturday over 1200m after two starts this time in over 1100m.

First-up at Wyong he finished 5th in a TAB Highway before getting a long way back last start in a messy run race over 1200m at Randwick and hitting the line hard to only be beaten 2.61 lengths in a Benchmark 78.

Williams has been impressed with the way Kreon has bounced through those runs and puts the unsatisfactory finishing positions down to not having a great deal of luck.

“On his return back at his first run at Wyong, we envisaged the horse being on speed and Zac Lloyd said that he gave him a bit of a dig in the ribs before the gates came open expecting them to the let the barriers go,” Williams said.

“The horse lunged forward and hit the gates and was slow away and he got a long way back in the race where he never really got around that track [Wyong] that well.

“He is a very big striding horse and if he had jumped Zac [Lloyd] seems to think he would have won the race.”

“The other day [January 25] he once again drew a very average gate. We rode the horse a lot more conservative given the barrier draw and the program that we have in place trying to get him out to 1400m [so] we wanted to try and get him a bit of cover.

“It was a very sloppy run race and he has come home his last 600m the third quickest in the race, so on paper it might have looked a bit average but the run is better than it looks given the way we rode the horse against his own pattern and in a very slowly run race where there was a lot of interference.

“It was a forgive and forget run.”

The Goulburn trainer will also saddle up She Within and Exit Fee in Saturdays Highway with both horses set a task drawing barriers 19 and 20 respectively.

“I would put She Within a bit ahead of Exit Fee and she got beat at Goulburn the other day but she is a 1400m to 1600m horse and just looking at her form you would think… no she is not,” Williams said.

“After her win at Moruya she pulled up with a stone bruise which had us in a situation where we couldn’t do much work with her. So, we used that run as Goulburn as a barrier trial.

“Unfortunately she got beat and she got beat because of the barrier.

“She isn’t a 1000m horse and she is a horse that is going to be much better suited at 1200m on Saturday. It is just unfortunate she has drawn a bad gate.

“Both horses worked (Wednesday) morning and she could have beaten Exit Fee quite comfortably.”

Albeit Williams is naturally disappointed he won’t get the chance to take Highway Strip to Nowra for the South-East Country Championships he remains optimistic that he can prove to be his next group potential galloper when he returns.

“He is still learning and the penny hasn’t dropped yet,” Williams said.

“He has had that foot issue his last two runs and in 12 months’ time he could be potentially a group type. I have such a high opinion of him.

“If we give him a good spell now and bring him back in good time, we can produce him to have two or three runs. We are hopeful of getting into a race like The Kosciuszko.”

View final fields with full form & race replays for Royal Randwick here