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By Ray Hickson

Murwillumbah trainer David McColm might have one of the major players for Saturday’s $150,000 Newhaven Park Northern Rivers Country Championships (1400m) at Grafton but he learned the hard way not to take things for granted.

Trainer David McColm (Pic: Darren Winningham)

Far Too Easy is on the second line of betting at $11 with TAB to win the $500,000 Final on April 2 so he’s expected to finish top two at Coffs and progress to Royal Randwick.

But after suffering a bleed on the brain back in 2010 McColm’s life changed, he gave up training for almost a decade but is back to full health and enjoying the ride the three-year-old is taking him on knowing nothing is guaranteed.

“I’m one of those guys who takes one day at a time,’’ he said.

“There’s still good horses in these races, it’s not a foregone conclusion. He’s still got to be at his best to win these types of races but he goes into the race pretty good.

“I’m hoping we get to the main event and if he gets there all good and well he’ll acquit himself well.”

The 61-year-old was diagnosed with a cavernoma, it couldn’t be operated on and he had high blood pressure at the time which caused a bleed.

“I just have to watch what I do, eat well and get plenty of sleep, do all the right things,’’ he said.

“It did take about three years to get over the bleed, I wasn’t well for a long time. We bred a couple of horses and didn’t get real serious but now I’ve got back into it again.

“It’s lovely getting horses like this, especially when we have a small team.”

Far Too Easy has won four of his seven starts, he was runner-up in the Listed Gold Edition Plate (1200m) at Doomben in December then gave McColm a huge thrill running fourth behind King Of Sparta in the $2m Magic Millions Guineas (1400m) on the Gold Coast.

He was purchased for $45,000 and has already banked over $260,000 so has been something of dream for McColm, who has no more than half a dozen horses in work, and his owners.

“He’s exceeded all expectations,’’ he said.

“He was always a nice horse. Early on we didn’t push him but once we started to put him under a bit of pressure he started to show signs of being a nice horse but certainly not as good as what he’s done.

“He ran out of his skin at the Gold Coast. We thought he would run a good race, he’d gone into it super and done everything right. I expected a good run and that’s what he did.”

That last run was almost a month ago and McColm said it’s an ideal gap between runs to refocus on the Newhaven Park Country Championships.

He’s had a jump out at home and, so long as he doesn’t confront the unknown of a heavy track, the conditions on the day don’t concern the trainer.

“He won his first two starts on soft going and he won those in fine fashion. Soft is good, heavy we’re not 100 per cent sure,’’ he said.

“I think he will handle heavy but it’s not ideal.

Far Too Easy runs fourth at the Gold Coast on January 15

“Between the Gold Edition and Magic Millions it was a month and we’ve taken the same pattern. I know it’s a little bit long between runs but he’s the type of horse I believe is a three week turnaround sort of horse so he’s just had the extra week.”

Ashley Morgan takes ride on Far Too Easy on Saturday but it’s hard not to notice that the gelding was partnered by Chris Caserta to his first two wins at Grafton.

The young jockey tragically drowned in early December after heading out for a late night swim.

Between his connection and McColm’s battle a win by Far Too Easy on Saturday would rightly be quite an emotional one.

“It was a tragic circumstance. Chris was only 26 and had a lot ahead of him, to have something like that happen it is really tragic,’’ he said.

“Life is short, enjoy it. If you have a dream chase it, because you just don’t know.”

All the entries, form and replays for Saturday's Country Championships meeting at Grafton