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By Ray Hickson

Each time Ballina trainer Stephen Lee has set a horse for the Newhaven Park Northern Rivers Country Championships he’s been successful in booking a place in the Final.

Trainer Stephen Lee (Pic: Grant Guy)

Right back in the inaugural year of 2015 he prepared Voltaire Lumiere to run second behind Redwolf, a year later he won his first regional feature with Profiler then had to wait six years until his next hopeful Zoukina ran a close second in 2022.

So there’s plenty of interest in how Lee’s talented five-year-old Field Regiment performs when Coffs Harbour hosts the $150,000 race on Saturday.

“So far we’ve been lucky, I’ve qualified every time we’ve been there,’’ Lee said.

“Unfortunately Voltaire Lumiere got a bit crook and didn’t make it down (to the Final) but Zoukina and Profiler went there.”

Zoukina didn't handle the heavy track in the Final at Randwick last year while back in 2016 Profiler drew wide and finished near the tail.

Field Regiment has long been Lee’s major Country Championships hopeful but he admits to being a bit deflated after he beat only two home in a 1350m Class 6 at Doomben on January 21.

Lee said he discovered a likely excuse and after a dashing trial win at Lismore on February 7, over Championships rival Boncassie, he’s confident the gelding is back on track.

“His last run was a bit disappointing but I feel he got his tongue back a bit and also I think he didn’t handle the rock hard track,’’ he said.

“I thought he’d put his stamp on this race with that race.

“We put a tongue tie on him and I was really happy with his trial. Les (Tilley) said he ran straight through the line, he thought he got the other horse off the bit.”

A second-up Ipswich win showed Lee he was on target with Field Regiment and that was confirmed, despite being defeated, in his third-up run at Doomben.

In a capacity field he’s drawn ideally in a middle barrier and Lee said that would give him options in what looks to be a hotly contested first part of the 1400m race.

“When I took him up there the other day and ran third it was a really good run,” he said.

“Les went a bit hard on him early and he skipped away four lengths in front and if he’d held him up I think it would have made it interesting.

“He’s done well this week, a little bit of sting out of the track will help him.

“He can come off the pace a little bit. He’s a better horse on the pace but he can come from not far off a hot tempo.”

Lee’s charge was a $17 chance when TAB’s market opened on Thursday.

First and second will make their way to the $500,000 Newhaven Park Country Championships Final (1400m) at Royal Randwick on April 1.

Field Regiment wins a Lismore trial on February 7

He said the Grafton carnival in July beckons Field Regiment after the Country Championships series, as it will for Zoukina and another horse, Byron Eyes, he had hoped to have lining up in the Championships race but time beat him on that front.

“She’s had the one trial and trialled quite well but I would have liked to give her a run over 1200m,’’ he said of Byron Eyes.

“I’ve put a lot of my horses away now for Grafton. Zoukina, Lasting Kiss and a couple of nice maiden horses.”

All the fields, form and replays for Saturday's Country Championships meeting at Coffs Harbour