GRAHAM V WHEELER. IT'S 'GAME ON' AGAIN IN THE BRISBANE APPRENTICE JOCKEYS' PREMIERSHIP
By Graham Potter | Saturday, February 17, 2024
The race for the Brisbane Apprentice Jockey Premiership will be well and truly resumed at Eagle Farm tomorrow with Bailey Wheeler returning to the saddle after spending a month’s stable enforced suspension from race riding ... a move which was handed down by his boss Annabel Neasham.
This is the second time Neasham has used this option, and it is to be hoped that her ‘tough love’ message has got through to the highly talented young rider so he can now set about furthering his career without these untimely and wholly unwanted interruptions.
For now, though, you would assume he is returning hungry as perhaps never before ... and way up ahead in the distance he can the target he will hoping to chase down.
It’s Cejay Graham’s dust he can see ... eleven-and-a-half wins ahead of Wheeler in the Apprentice Premiership race.
Graham, while obviously benefitting from Wheelers twice enforced absence, has been riding up a storm herself this season with the winners flowing week after week to such a degree that she actually sits in third place in the open Brisbane Jockey’s Premiership ... and the chances are she won’t be stopping soon.
But, as has been the case with Graham, who has been solidly supported by her stable boss Kelly Schweida and a host of other trainers, opportunity ultimately plays as big a part in a success story as anything else and in this first meeting back, it is clearly obvious that door has been left wide open for Wheeler on his return.
Wheeler is scheduled to have five rides at Eagle Farm. He has been engaged by ten-time premiership winning trainer Tony Gollan to partner Island Magic and Ain’t He Grand in the first two races on the card.
Wheeler’s remaining three rides for the day are all aboard runners from the Neasham stable ... Iowa (race 3 – the race favourite), Plundering (race 6 – second favourite) and Regal Pom (race 9 – joint-favourite).
So, the day, in theory at least, sets up pretty nicely for Wheeler.
For her part, Graham already has a high level of confidence going for her, the type that Wheeler will be hoping to regain with a couple of good results, and you can rest assured she won’t be taking a backward step ... even though the betting boards suggest Graham might be in for a tough day at the office.
Graham has been booked for seven rides at the Eagle Farm meeting for six different trainers ... Louise White, Matt Kropp, Tony Gollan, Nat McCall, Tony and Maddysen Sears (two rides) and Joel Pengilly ... with the difficulty of Graham’s task of adding to her winning tally being emphasised by the fact that the Sears trained Red Top ... at $12 ... is Graham’s shortest priced runner on the day.
But, hey, this is Cejay Graham, a jockey riding at the top of her game.
Of course, nothing will be decided at Eagle Farm ... or at the next meeting ... or the next ... with regard to the Apprentice Jockeys’ Premiership.
There is still a long way to go, but right now, with Graham and Wheeler facing off once again ... it is very much ‘game on’.
More articles
|