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By Tony Megahey

Golden Gorge, a Sandown winner for the dual Melbourne and Caulfield Cup-winning Robert Hickmott stable, is no waning sell-off and has relocated for a good reason explained his Dubbo trainer Kody Nestor into Saturday’s TAB $75,000 Hawkesbury 1400m, Class 2, Highway.

“He’s still owned in the same Victorian interests - they were straight onto those big prizemoney increases up here," former jockey Nestor said.

Dubbo-based trainer Kody Nestor. Image by Bradley Photographers

"He’s a talent came and here in good order; we set him for a Highway a while back.

“He’s a lightly raced four-year-old, that Sandown win and placing was only last year and his runs here have been really solid.

“We got him in February off a long spell; he didn’t have the fitness levels and they were short of his distance range.

“He’ll be hard to beat, he’s where we want him, the highest rater by a margin with that 61.5kg.”

The booking of noted big occasion rider Nash Rawiller is a significant plus for the Mossman gelding. The horse went up at $6.50 on TAB and was crunched into the $3.30 favourite.

Nestor and Rawiller have a close association combining last season to win the Country 2000m Classic at Rosehill Gardens with Fast Talking and other Sydney winners.

“The weight won’t worry him, he’s a big solid unit, we never considered claiming as he had 63kg when he ran third at Muswellbrook, massive run.

“We’ll get the right ride from Nash and from the good draw at 1400m he’ll race a lot closer.”

Meanwhile, owners and trainers far and wide are honing in for the booming $9m Racing NSW regional increases, including the TAB Highway series, worth $100,000 from July.

Nominations have been through the roof with Racing NSW regularly scheduling two Highway races to accommodate the tremendous resurgence in regional racing. Again, Saturday’s episode has capacity acceptances.

“There’s a real awareness interstate of the incentives in NSW if you’ve got a horse with genuine ability,” Nestor added. “If this gelding keeps progressing, we’ll be looking at next season’s Country Championships and The Kosciuszko.

Nestor conceded Golden Gorge has had issues: “He had some spurring on knee joints, but manageable. The way he’s progressed, says he’s over any problems.

Golden Gorge’s credentials can’t be disputed; his three regional runs for Nestor have been encouraging when he was underdone and short of his preferred distance.

His Sandown win and placing were at 1400m and on-pace. He’s back in grade in a Class 2 country race as indicated by conceding four and five kilos to his nearest weighted opposition.

So, form as good as it gets for a country class 2, combined with the outstanding record in recent seasons of ex-jockey Nestor. A Dubbo original, Kody is operating at an outstanding 18% winning strike rate in just his fourth training season after retiring with injury and weight issues.

Meanwhile, Hawkesbury is presently is rated a Good 4 track in fine weather.

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