BRISBANE APPRENTICE JOCKEY PREMIERSHIP WINNER CEJAY GRAHAM. IT'S BEEN QUITE A TWELVE MONTHS!
By Graham Potter | Tuesday, July 30, 2024
There is absolutely no doubt about it in Cejay Graham’s mind!
"When I look back to a year ago and to everything that has happened now ... I just couldn’t be more grateful. It has been the best year of my life for sure!"
By any standard Graham has had a stellar season, landing the Brisbane Apprentice Jockeys’ Premiership, amongst other major highlights, in emphatic fashion.
While her ultimate winning margin in that premiership was substantial, it nevertheless was only achieved because of Graham’s unerring, professional level of commitment to the cause in which she has displayed a concentrated work ethic second to none.
In doing that, Graham had avoided the trap of complicating things more than they need to be. In fact, part of her success comes down to adhering to just two simple life principles ... in her words ... “never give up” and “never stop learning.”
But for all of that, every rider coming through the franks needs an opportunity to take the next step and, sometimes, as Graham did, you have to give someone a nudge to give you that opportunity. It’s called making your own luck ... and sometimes that is the easy part.
The rider still have to take it from there and make the most of any opportunity that is offered.
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“YOU’D MAKE A PRETTY GOOD BOSS, I THINK.”
In the period prior to moving to Brisbane, Graham was regularly making the six-hour drive from Port Macquarie to Brisbane ...and back... in her restless pursuit of establishing a career foothold in Brisbane.
“It was a lot of miles and a lot of hard work, but it didn’t seem like it at the time because I was just really eager to make my mark up here and make an opportunity happen,” explained Graham.
“The opportunity with Kelly (Schweida) wouldn’t have arisen if I didn’t put all of those hard yards in.
“He approached me in the time I was coming up here. I had a ride for him at Doomben on Sailor’s Secret and before I got legged up on the horse, he said, so what are you doing. You can’t keep driving back and forth.
“I said, well I just need a boss. I said you’d make a pretty good boss, I think. I was just having a bit of a joke, but then he approached me at the Sunny Coast, I think possibly a week later, and I remember looking at Jimmy Orman and asking, is he being serious? Jimmy said, yeah, I think so ... and a week later I had moved up to Brisbane.
“I could not have done any better than having Kelly as my boss. I consider myself part of his family. I’m just lucky to be in such a good family workplace environment.
"It’s played a big part in what I have been able to achieve.
“Kelly is just a great person, and I couldn’t have be luckier than finding a spot here with him.”
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“I LOVE THE JOB, SO I JUST KEEP MOVING FORWARD.”
The fact that one of Graham’s main goals entering the 2023/24 season was to be able to ride for a full season, puts in perspective the mental and physical battles that Graham had to deal with in previous years as a constant run of injuries not only put a several roadblocks in her career path, but threatened to derail it completely.
“Being in and out of the game ... having so many injures so many times ... it does knock your confidence in terms of whether you are doing the right thing because I’m my worst critic,” admitted Graham,
“I over-analyse things a lot just because I want to do better all the time but, in the end, you just have to push any negatives aside.
“I love the job, so I just keep moving forward.”
The point here being that it hadn’t been smooth sailing for Graham up to arriving in Brisbane where she would face her biggest test.
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“YOU HAVE TO LEARN AND LEARN RELATIVELY QUICKLY.”
“It was great coming into the Brisbane jockey’s room,” said Graham.
“I never thought of it as being intimidating. I guess I looked around and just considered myself lucky to be given the opportunity to ride with those riders and to try to learn off them and be like them.
“You have to learn and learn relatively quickly, otherwise you don’t make it.
“Part of that is going over your race replays. Kelly (Schweida) was great with that. We’d sit down ... we still do sit down and look at race replays and pick at things I possibly could have done better ... especially when I’ve been beaten in a photo-finish or run second or third, I’m looking straight away to see what I could have done to finish closer.
“I’m always trying to get stronger on them. I’m always trying to perfect my style ... I guess everyone has a different style. I know you can never stop learning in this game.
“I think I do take constructive criticism fairly well. I don’t like making mistakes. I hate disappointing people.
“There’s nothing better than coming back in from a race ... whether you have won or not ... and the owners and trainer are just so happy about the way you’ve ridden the horses. I really take good enjoyment out of that.
“I do take things to heart if I know I’ve ridden a bad race. I get very disappointed in myself but the next race comes around so quickly, I guess that what I’ve learnt is ... learn from it, let it go and move on.
“On the flip side of that, interestingly enough, one of the things I’ve also had to learn is to accept that I rode a race well ... that there was nothing else I could have done.”
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“THE GROUP 2 WIN ON KINTYRE WAS THE HIGHLIGHT BY FAR.”
Winners came quickly for Graham ... many double successes, and even a four-timer on one occasion, Graham wasted little time in getting into a regular winning groove which she maintained throughout the season.
Each and every winner contributed to Graham’s premiership run, but there were some outstanding individual highlights, headed by Graham’s first Group 2 win aboard Kintyre in the Queensland Guineas.
“Yeah, the win on Kintyre was fantastic. It was by far the highlight ... and a close second would have to be outriding my claim on At Witz End in the Eye Liner."
As success has come her way in the city, Graham has had to become accustomed to media obligations ... from interviews to photo-shoots, it’s all in a successful jockey’s bag of tricks these days, and Graham is unfazed by those expectations.
“I actually quite enjoy the media side of things,” said Graham. “I’m very comfortable with it and if I ride a winner and I don’t get interviewed I’m almost disappointed.
"I’m happy to do it.”
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“I COULDN’T BE HAPPIER. IT’S BEEN SUCH AN UNREAL EXPERIENCE”
When Graham arrived at Kelly Schweida’s yard she saw a photo of Kyle Wilson Taylor on the trainer’s desk. She asked what she had to do to have her photo there and Schweida said she had to win a premiership as Wilson-Taylor had done when attached to Schweida’s stable when he won the 2021/22 Brisbane Apprentice Jockey’s Premiership.
Graham did not forget that.
“It’s already on the desk,” confirmed Graham. “I didn’t waste time. We went for dinner last Saturday night and I printed a photo off for him and I printed one off for me and I said, I’ll let you place that on your desk.
“They’ve sent me a photo of the photo and it is on Kelly’s desk.
“I couldn’t be more pleased to see it there because I know what it means.
“It’s been hard work, I guess ... but I just look back and there are just such great memories.
“Like I said, it is the best year I’ve had of my life.
“I just couldn’t be happier. It’s been such an unreal experience ... and I just hope I can keep making my mark moving forward as a senior rider." (Graham came out of apprenticeship on July 25).
With one metropolitan meeting left for the season, Graham metropolitan winners total currently stands at 59 which has her in a joint second place with Ryan Maloney in the overall Brisbane Jockeys’ Premiership. Quite incredibly ... talk about work ethic ... Graham has had more metropolitan rides ... 567 ... than anyone else this season. To put that in perspective, the ultra-hard working, Premiership winning Jimmy Orman has had 557 rides and only two other jockeys have topped 400 rides.
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