The $4.20 favourite jumped from barrier 11 and was forced to travel wide the entire trip.

He was the second widest horse at the turn but it provided a clear path for the gelding who kicked away to win by almost two lengths from Dyfield and a fast-finishing Not For Export.

“We went in easy in the first part and built into a nice spot on the corner and he was too strong for them,” Schedule jockey Kerrin McEvoy said.

“He is better than your normal Highway horse.”

The win made it a double for McEvoy who had saluted in the previous race on Richard Of Yorke.

Schedule was trained by Robert Hickmont in Victoria until the middle of last year when owner Lloyd Williams sold him to Mack Griffith.

“I originally had him in mind for the Country Championships but it came around too quickly for him this time,” Griffith said.

Despite being a five-year-old, Schedule has only raced six times and has never finished worse than third.

“Lloyd was very patient with him and we’ve given him the time he needs as well,” Griffith said. “He was a bit highly strung.”

We’ve just been trying to pick races that suit him to give him every chance.”

Cameron Crockett also mad the trip from Mudgee with another three-year-old in Barbass, who returned from a 10-month break and is being prepared for the Scone Guineas.

As a two-year-old he won the Inglis Challenge at Scone and split Skylight Glow and Acatour at Randwick before he progressed to the JJ Atkins in Brisbane.

It has caused him to be up in the benchmark, so Crockett was forced to a Highway Handicap.

Though he was at $8 odds, Blake Shin rode Barbass to the fourth place spot, just inches from a place finish.

The fourth spot comes just eight days after the returning horse place second in Mudgee Race Club’s Open Trials, a run that saw Crockett’s Moss My Name take the top spot.

Philip Courtney’s Dyfield ($21) placed second in the Highway Handicap, with Dar Lunn’s Not for Export ($13) beat out Crockett’s hopeful for third place.

Crockett is eager to take Barbass on to bigger and better things after the spell.

"If he progresses like we think he can from Saturday, we'll be going to the Scone Guineas,” he said.

"The owners won't die wondering, they're glass full, not glass half-full people at all.

“And they know they've got some genuine quality here."