MISS JOELENE SCORES TEN OUT OF TEN IN THE WAVE

By Graham Potter | Wednesday, June 10, 2026

The five-year-old mare Miss Joelene set the Schweida train on a roll at the Gold Coast when claiming back-to-back wins in the $500 000 win in The Wave under a prefect ride from Cejay Graham, beating Encoder into second place … the same result as in the 2025 edition of the race.

While there is probably always some degree of stress when you have a feature race favourite, the pre-race setup for Miss Joelene this time around had nothing on last year’s race, with the 2025 Gold Coast meeting being switched from the Gold Coast to the Sunshine Coast at the eleventh hour after an act of vandalism, a poisoning of a section of the Gold Coast track around the 500m, made the track unraceable on that scheduled race-day.
That provided all trainers involved in that meeting a pretty hectic and fairly exhausting twenty-four hours in terms of rearranging transport schedules etc, but it all ended well for the Schweida camp and the connections of Miss Joelene, who beat Encoder home by 0.18 lengths in a tough, hard-earned and well deserved win under Damian Lane as the races second favourite at $4.20 at the rearranged meeting.

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Fast forward twelve months and this time there was no upsetting news in the leadup to the race and all pre-race schedules proceeded smoothly.

Joelene came into The Wave having raced twelve times since her 2025 success in the race. She had won on three occasions during that time, picking up a Quality Handicap over 1350m (when beating the more than useful Cifrado) … the Listed Tatts Gold Crown over 2100m … and the Listed Tails Stakes over 1500m.
The Tails Stakes result came on December 13, a month before Miss Joelene’s assignment in The Wave, and she also split that difference, racing again on December 27 in the Listed Member’s Mile, two weeks before The Wave.
Miss Joelene had to settle for the closest of close runner-up finishes there. She was flying late, coming from a seemingly impossible position, failing by a diminishing 0.11 length to snare the Bjorn Baker trained Group 2 Shannon Stakes winner Amor Victorious.

Miss Joelene had clearly been well primed by the Schweida stable for her main target.

Now, The Wave was beckoning.

Cejay Graham, who had ridden Miss Joelene in her three starts leading into The Wave, was always going to go back on the $2.70 race favourite from a number nine barrier draw, and she duly settled Miss Joelene in third last place, some six to seven lengths off the lead in the first half of the race.

Coming to the home turn, Graham had Miss Joelene swinging all of six-wide, still third last, still with plenty of ground to make up … but, by saving Miss Joelene early for her final effort and taking her into clear galloping room to ensure Miss Joelene, importantly, had an uninterrupted run all the way down the home straight, Graham had clearly executed the first part of the plan as required.

Now Miss Joelene had to reproduce the barnstorming run home that she did in the Members Mile, except this time she needed to go one better and get to the front when it mattered most.

Gunned into gear by Graham soon after straightening, Miss Joelene needed no second asking and she quickly took up the challenge, steadily going through her gears, passing horses, until she hit top gear with 150m and surged forward to join issue with Encoder, the $5.50 second favourite, in a finish which was a repeat of the 2025 edition of the race.

Encoder did stick on, for several strides threatening to deny Miss Joelene the double, but the Schweida trained runner’s momentum carried the day as Graham pushed her mount into the lead inside the final 50m before edging away to a 0.88 length victory.

Both Kelly Schweida and Cejay Graham seldom show excessive emotion … win, lose or draw … and that scenario was very much in play again here, although Graham’s pleasure at having her family come up from Northern New South Wales to support her on the day of a victory which will go onto her career highlight reel one day, was clear for all to see.

“I’m so thankful to Kelly for sticking with me. It would have been very tempting to put a big name on. It really means a lot to me to get an opportunity like this and she’s just a star,” said Graham post-race.

“It was sticky from the draw but we ended up in a lovely position. The way the track has been playing we could have easily tried to ride her out of her comfort zone but just had to be confident that she was the best horse in the race - that she was.”

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