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Big race specialist Craig Williams jumped aboard the horse from the Northern Rivers, Far Too Easy, for the first time on race day and produced a masterful ride to run down the two-time defending champion Front Page to rocket home in the 2024 The Kosciuszko results.

It was a compelling seventh edition of the world’s richest race for country-trained horses as David McColm-trained All Too Hard six-year-old from Murwillumbah, Far Too Easy ($4.80), dug in and charged late to secure a well-earned feature race success in the $2 million The Kosciuszko (1200m) on The Everest Day.

In a true fairytale result, the galloper that has beaten illness and survived the floods celebrated a huge victory thanks to a gun ride by Williams who used barrier one to his advantage driving up along the rails to get onto the coat tails of the leader.

“My dream has come true and not just for us, for this horse, he’s been such a special animal to all of us and he deserves his name in the Kosciuszko record books,” winning trainer McColm told Sky Thoroughbred Central.

“We’ve been through a lot with this horse, he’s had his ups and downs. This year he got very ill, and I never ever thought we’d be back for another Kosciuszko tilt.

“But he’s come through the day and he’s just, he’s done what he does and that is he tries.”

Williams sat on speed stalking the pace throughout on last year’s third placegetter who eventually got dragged into the race by the front-running favourite Front Page ($2.60F) who was chasing an historic three-peat in the event.

It took Far Too Easy nearly the length of the straight to run the top elect down as the two best horses in the race fought it out over the final stages in a great contest.

“All credit to Craig; he jumped on a plane, he flew up from Melbourne, you know, a lot of jockeys don’t do that. He took the initiative, he wanted to be a part of it and he wanted to see what he was like in the barriers and it paid dividends today,” McColm said giving credit to the winning rider.

“I thought we could run him (Front Page) down and look, Front Page is such an amazing horse in his own right.

“We’ve met him three times now and he’s beaten us twice. But when we were close and I knew that coming, I knew that last 50 or 100 (metres) he would be there.”

The Matthew Dale-trained Front Page, ridden by James McDonald, tried hard to fend off the challenger.

Far Too Easy however knuckled late and really raced away over the final 50m to overpower Front Page, who looked to be cruising, and charge through the line putting a good gap on his rival late for a two-length triumph.

“He was brave in defeat. He gave his all,” McDonald said of the beaten runner-up.

The Todd Howlett-trained Tanglewood ($16) finished a further length back third to complete the trifecta.

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