![Canberra trainer Matt Kelley and I've Bean Tryin' are chasing Country Championships success on Saturday. Picture by Elesa Kurtz Canberra trainer Matt Kelley and I've Bean Tryin' are chasing Country Championships success on Saturday. Picture by Elesa Kurtz](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/GzY3iczng7SLWqVgHSV78t/c79c07f5-921d-4e20-bef6-861c8d2c1d31.jpg/r0_46_4138_2372_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
Matthew Kelley knows exactly where he'd be right now if he wasn't training horses.
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On the tools at a construction site.
It's where the Canberra trainer spent his past life, toiling away as a carpenter before deciding to go all in on his racing dream.
Now, just five years later, Kelley is preparing for the biggest race of his life, the $500,000 Country Championships final at Randwick on Saturday.
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I've Bean Tryin' enters the race a $13 chance, behind joint $5 favourites Akasawa and Talbragar. Queanbeyan trainer Nick Olive's Kimberley Secrets is a $7.50 hope.
Kelley's gelding qualified by winning the Goulburn wildcard heat on March 17, the last chance for country trainers desperately seeking a start in the lucrative final.
It capped a rapid rise for the youngster who has been training horses for just nine months.
"The reason I moved to Canberra was to try chase my dream," Kelley said. "It could either go one way or the other.
"I'd get a few more horses, a few more clients and slowly start to build the business or I'd get no clients, lose horses, get no results and have to put a line through that and go back to building.
"I'm lucky I've had so much support and the calibre of a couple of horses I have, a lot of trainers go 10 years without finding a horse like I've Bean Tryin'."
While Kelley previously worked as a carpenter, he was destined to be involved in racing from his formative years.
Growing up in Cooma, Matthew started riding horses as a six-year-old and quickly started learning from his father David, an experienced trainer.
Eventually Kelley decided to go all in on his racing dream and moved to Canberra in 2019, later setting up a satellite stable at Thoroughbred Park for his dad's operation.
The long-term goal was to establish a stable of his own and the youngster was granted his training licence last June.
I've Bean Tryin' was one of a number of horses to transfer across to the new operation and quickly developed into a favourite.
The four-year-old was victorious in Kelley's first race as a trainer and less than a month later won a Highway at Randwick.
"I've had a lot to do with him, I rode him trackwork and helped dad make decisions about where we'd run him," Kelley said, "I always knew he had a fair bit of talent, that's no secret now, the record speaks for itself.
"I'm grateful the owners elected to leave him in my care. It was pretty risky for them to leave a horse of that calibre with a young trainer, they could have easily sent him to a big trainer in Sydney.
"I've been in the game a long time before I had my own training licence. I know I could go a bloody long time without finding another one like him."
Saturday's final may mark a big step up for I've Bean Tryin' but the gelding has been surprising people since he was born.
Owner David Bracher bred the horse in hope of winning the odd race in the country however those expectations quickly changed when he won a maiden in Canberra in just his second start.
Bracher and his fellow owners soon started to dream big and I've Bean Tryin' has now won five of 12 starts and collected almost $200,000 in prizemoney.
The ownership group has been on the journey every step of the way and a host of friends and family will make the trip to Sydney on Saturday.
That support is what makes the Country Championships such a special concept.
"Everyone one of them will be there," Kelley said. "It will be a massive day for Cooma.
"People who don't own racehorses and never will own racehorses just want to be there and support this horse from Cooma. He's brought the whole community into racing.
"He's a little bush horse who was bred to try and win a TAB race somewhere. He's got no spectacular breeding, there was never any expectation to climb any levels. The owners have bred horses and never had anything like this. To breed this horse is a big achievement and they're enjoying the ride."
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