THE DANNY WILLIAMS PATIENCE HAS BEEN THE MAKING OF EXIT FEE

Exit Fee escaped a pocket to snatch victory over Wayburn in the TAB Highway - courtesy Bradley Photographers.

Like most country based trainers Danny Williams knows how tough it is to win a race in the city, especially one of the highly competitive TAB Highways. When the concept was introduced by Racing NSW in 2015, he was one of a handful of trainers to dominate for quite a while. He’s not sure how many Highways he’s won but believes it to be twenty seven or twenty eight, complemented by a huge number of seconds.

Dan was not the least bit surprised when his stable runner Exit Fee was backed into favouritism in Saturday’s edition following a cracking first up second at Gosford recently. The trainer’s first minor concern came when the four year old started to overrace when parked right behind the leaders at the 600m. He was even more concerned when Exit Fee was trapped behind a wall of leaders on top of the rise, and in panic mode when there was still no sign of a run at the 200m. At that point Bullion Hunter was under siege from Danxia, Neesham and Bring Me Saki with Wayburn looking dangerous wide out. A split suddenly appeared between the tiring Bring Me Saki and Neesham, and Adam Hyeronimus was quick to put it to good use. Exit Fee was through in a flash to head Wayburn and beat him narrowly. Danny Williams breathed a sigh of relief.

Exit Fee (Adam Hyeronimus) scores a gutsy win over Wayburn in Saturday's TAB Highway - courtesy Bradley Photographers.

The astute Goulburn trainer inspected a big number of the yearlings in the 2023 Magic Millions Adelaide Sale catalogue, some of them several times over. There was one he couldn’t get out of his mind. Dan kept coming back to Lot 400 - the bay colt by Ten Sovereigns from Vinzky. He wasn’t too big nor too small. Nicely balanced, good walker, unfazed by endless interruptions from prospective bidders.

The trainer knew his sire Ten Sovereigns was a former Coolmore horse who’d won three top quality two year old races for Aidan O’Brien and had later started favourite in the Gr 1 2000 Guineas, in which he finished out of a place. Following his failure at the mile, Ten Sovereigns reverted to sprint races and later won the historic July Cup at Newmarket by a dominant margin. Danny also remembered the stallion had been rushed to Australia in 2019 to run in the Everest won by Yes Yes Yes. Whatever excuses he may have had on the day didn’t alter the fact that he failed to beat a rival to the judge, and Dan hoped memories of that abject failure might help to keep the yearling’s price down when bidding commenced.

Astute horseman Danny Williams didn't want to leave the 2023 Adelaide Magic Millions Sale without the horse now known as Exit Fee - courtesy Bradley Photographers.

Danny was also aware that the colt’s dam Vinzky was by the well regarded broodmare sire Stravinsky, and that his granddam Gazebo was a daughter of the well thought of Snaadee. If he needed one final push it came in the fact that the youngster’s great granddam was none other than Tristanagh, one of the best fillies of her generation. The grey daughter of Sir Tristram had won seven races including the Thousand Guineas, Wakeful Stakes and VRC Oaks of 1989. Dan was hoping somewhere between $40,000 and $50,000 might secure the son of Ten Sovereigns. At $80,000 he was close to giving up the chase, but there was something about this colt that prompted him to keep going. He was way over budget when he fired in a bid at $105,000, and greatly relieved when the gavel fell.

By the middle of 2024 the precocious young horse was showing undeniable ability but Dan was still having trouble completing the formulation of a syndicate. “I couldn’t believe it,” said the trainer. “Word was out that he could gallop a bit and I was anxious to get him to the trials. We wanted to complete his ownership group before we looked for a name, but I couldn’t shift the last few shares. Finally we filled the spots, named him Exit Fee and off he went to a Canberra trial on the synthetic track. With Pierre Boudvillain up he finished second of ten to a smart one called Announcing. We took him to Forbes for his first start and I couldn’t see him getting beaten, but Pierre pulled the trigger way too early and he was beaten into third place. To think the same jockey appears likely to win this season’s NSW premiership. He’s come a hell of a long way. Two weeks later Exit Fee won a Super Maiden very comfortably at Moruya with Nick Heywood at his brilliant best.”

Exit Fee (Nick Heywood) coasted home in a Super Maiden at Moruya 18/08/2024 - courtesy Bradley Photographers.

The horse made huge strides between his first and second preparations even though he was still way too keen in his work and in his races. Dan went to great pains to try to quell his enthusiasm on the training track. Every one of Exit Fee’s five runs in his second preparation were in TAB Highways. In one of those runs he finished a close fourth to the talented Clear Thinking, and in another a close second to Lisztomania. He got his well deserved TAB Highway at Rosehill with Zac Lloyd in the saddle and followed with a good 5th to Speck at Randwick. The paddock beckoned.

The first of two pretty serious setbacks came along as Exit Fee was getting close to resuming after that spell. He ran second under no pressure at his first trial back, but was asked to do a bit more by Nick Heywood in his second trial. He got a little too keen in the middle stages and at some point, gave himself a pretty decent “whack” at the back of the off fore joint in the sesamoid region. He opened the skin and was decidedly sore the following day. He was never without an elastoplast wrap thereafter and made sufficient improvement to make it back to the races with a second to Calico Miss at Randwick. He lined up again at Rosehill two weeks later, but this time raced well below his best to finish out of a place and was sore on cooling down. It was clear the niggling injury required extensive time out and Exit Fee wasn’t seen again for almost seven weeks.

He was back in the spring of 2025 for a quick campaign in which the best of three runs was a third to Petticoat at Randwick, but Dan was far from happy. His worst fears were realised when he had the horse scoped following a struggling ninth in a BM78 won by Roselyn’s Star at Rosehill. Vets reported the presence of chondritis, an infectious and inflammatory condition of the arytenoid cartilages in the throat - an early warning of a possible impending airway obstruction. The trainer commenced an intensive course of treatment after which he put Exit Fee away one more time.

To look at Exit Fee at Randwick on Saturday you'd never know he's had so many problems - courtesy Bradley Photographers.

It was one happy trainer who saddled up two runners for an 1100m BM78 at Randwick on January 6th this year. Exit Fee had worked as well as ever and appeared to be over all of his issues. Dan was confident he’d run boldly and also expected a forward showing from stablemate King Taurus. He was thrilled to see the latter beat all but Eye Of The Fire, but in disbelief to see Exit Fee struggling in fifth spot on the line. He wasn’t beaten far but not finishing off as expected. Vets agreed he wasn’t fully recovered from his breathing infirmity and recommended more time and continued treatment. The ever patient Williams resolved to leave the gelding alone until well into the autumn.

Two quiet Goulburn trials in April were followed by an impressive first up second to the Matt Dunn trained Neil in a strong 1000m TAB Highway at Gosford’s stand alone Saturday meeting on May 9th. Ridden for the first time by Adam Hyeronimus, Exit Fee looked like swamping Neil close to home but just felt the pinch in the last few strides to go under narrowly. The benefit of that outing, his first in four months was there for all to see at Randwick on Saturday, and was probably the reason for the support that saw him start favourite. The win saw him stretch his record to 16 starts for three wins, five placings and $244,150 - already well ahead of his $105,000 price tag at the Adelaide sale in 2023.

As Bart Cummings once said, “patience is the least used commodity in modern day racing.” Danny Williams is one trainer who shares the famous view espoused by the iconic horseman many years ago. His unshakeable patience has been a major factor in the continuing success of the headstrong and rather fragile Exit Fee. That same patience took Shelby Sixtysix from very humble beginnings to a 48 start career which yielded 5 wins, 12 placings, $884,840 and a coveted Gr 1 success in the 2022 Galaxy at Rosehill. Dan was delighted to bring us the news that “Shelby” has found a wonderful home with a mother and daughter partnership on the Central Coast. “He’s really landed on his feet,” said the trainer. “He’s a lovely quiet horse and will make a great companion for his new owners. I believe he’s learning fast and will make his show ring debut in the near future.”

Shelby Sixtysix (Robbie Dolan) scores narrowly from Big Parade in the 2022 Galaxy at Rosehill - courtesy Bradley Photographers.

FOOTNOTE. Danny kept the momentum rolling with another win at the Nowra meeting on Sunday with three year old filly Silver Serenade. The daughter of Winning Rupert carried 61 kgs against older horses in winning a 1000m BM58 on a Heavy 10 track. She was an $8000 online purchase for the Williams stable and has already accumulated close to $80,000 with two wins and five placings from just ten starts. The win will assist Pierre Boudvillain in his current quest for NSW premiership honours.