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By Ray Hickson

Just under a year ago Bean Foggy was standing knee deep in flood water as his trainer Darren Graham could only hope the waters didn’t rise any further in his Murwillumbah stables.

He shared that experience with 2022 Northern Rivers champ Far Too Easy and his trainer David McColm and like his neighbour was a year ago he’s now off to the Newhaven Park Country Championships Final with his promising four-year-old.

Bean Foggy's connections celebrate their Newhaven Park Country Championships win.

The gelding was a $10,000 purchase and is one of only two horses in training with Graham, who works three days a week in the agricultural department of Murwillumbah High School.

“I only have a few because I’ve got to get to work and it’s a bit hard to get work riders up there sometimes but at the moment we’re quite blessed because Wayne Wheatley is up there helping out, he comes early and does my horses for me,’’ Graham said.

“It’s a huge relief. Some of the owners have only been in one or two horses.

“My partner’s workmates are in him, the plumber that did some work on my house has gone in him, they all bought into him as a yearling.”

Bean Foggy was only second-up into the $150,000 Newhaven Park Northern Rivers Country Championships (1400m) at Coffs Harbour and he was brought with a strong late finish by Ben Looker post the biggest win of his career to date.

Local galloper Wizard Of Oz, trained by Warren Gavenlock, darted along the fence to claim second from Noble Missile who looked the winner when he dashed away early in the straight.

“Ben rode him a treat, he said he thought the fence is a bit off so he’d go out wide,’’ Graham said.

“He’s always shown a fair bit of promise but we’ve been trying to get him to mature and furnish into a horse.

“He’s a jet black horse, he doesn’t sweat up in the enclosure but he feels the heat. I came down very early in the morning and have been standing in the stable all day trying to keep him cool.”

Both Bean Foggy and Wizard Of Oz are on the $34 line with TAB having qualified for the $500,000 Final at Royal Randwick on April 1.

Graham said he’ll send the gelding to the paddock for a few days before he works out how to bridge the six week gap until The Star Championships, he may trial or look to give him another run.

Jockey Ben Looker only picked up the ride on Bean Foggy just over a week ago when his original mount Durnstein was ruled out though he was hardly foreign to the horse having partnered him to his maiden win and in his first-up placing on his home track.

“He’s a very nice horse, I had a lot to do with him early days,’’ Looker said.

“He went around in it last year and it was a bit too soon for him. Noble Missile gave a good kick on straightening which got me off the bridle a touch sooner than I would have liked.

“I had plenty of faith in Darren and the horse, I knew he would be tough late.”

Warren Gavenlock has been to the Final twice with his now retired galloper Plonka and he was rapt to get Wizard Of Oz qualified after a rushed preparation that saw him back up from a win at Newcastle five days earlier.

Bean Foggy wins the Northern Rivers Country Championships

Plonka won the Northern Rivers Championships in 2020 and the Wild Card in 2021 and finished third and sixth respectively in his two appearances in the Final.

In contrast to the winner’s sale price, Wizard Of Oz was a $1.1 million yearling and started out with Chris Waller but Gavenlock said the gelding had been targeted at the Championships since he was picked up a year ago.

“Credit to the owner, he bought this horse a long way out for this particular race,’’ he said.

“We had some ifs and buts through this preparation but we got there in the end.”

There was a sensation at the start when short priced favourite Lisztomania reared and threw jockey Ashley Morgan. The horse was later declared a non-runner as it was deemed he was denied a fair start.

All the results and replays from Saturday’s Country Championships meeting at Coffs Harbour