Cejay Graham chasing special photo finish

By Andrew Smith

There’s a framed photo of a jockey sitting on the desk of trainer Kelly Schweida at his Eagle Farm stables – but it’s not of Cejay Graham.

However, that picture of Schweida with his former apprentice Kyle Wilson-Taylor is what is fuelling the fire within for the 25-year-old.

Graham is fighting to claim the Queensland Metropolitan Apprentice Premiership this season and earn a sacred spot amongst the memorabilia.

“As we all know, Kyle was apprenticed to Kelly before me and he’s got a photo in on his desk in there,” Graham said.

“I said to Kelly ‘how do I get my photo on the desk?’ and he said ‘you have to win the premiership’ - so no photo on the desk unless I can win that premiership.

“I would love to win the premiership as probably any apprentice would do but I really had that set in my sights when I first came here.

“My claim’s dropping at the moment, I’m down to 1.5kg which means I need to improve on all those little one per cent things and do what I can to do my best to try and win that.”

Graham has made a flying start to the quest, with 31 wins and 47 placings coming from 242 metro starts.

She currently leads the Metropolitan Apprentice Premiership table by four-and-a-half wins over fellow young gun Bailey Wheeler, which also puts her third in the Metropolitan Jockey Premiership race.

To say Graham has done it the hard way would be an understatement.

She first broke her wrist in a fall at Grafton in 2017, and then suffered a broken back at Lismore in January 2021.

It was four months into the return to riding from the back injury where she again picked up another wrist problem in April 2022.

“I remember falling but I don’t remember anything after that - I hit my head quite hard and was knocked out for quite some time but I broke my wrist really badly, it was just shattered,” Graham said.

“I had to have a plate and a lot of screws in there to have it all fixed up, and was probably out for about seven months.

“I was doing a lot of rehab and things were’t just going right, it wasn’t healing and was causing me a lot of pain and I was thinking something’s not right.

“The plate had actually shifted off the bone and that was why it was causing me so much pain.

“I went in and got it all taken out, started the rehabilitation again and then thankfully it came good but I was out for nearly 12 months with all that.”

Graham used to commute the six hours from Port Macquarie to Brisbane twice a week for the races.

It was a throwaway conversation following a win for Schweida at Doomben that led to her making the permanent move north earlier this year, a shift that has proved to be beneficial for her development in the saddle.

“Kelly said something about needing a boss or something like that and I think I said to him ‘you’d make a good boss, how about that?’ and then just had a laugh," she said. 

“Then it was a couple of weeks later he said ‘do you want to come be my apprentice?’ and I just jumped at the chance.

“I feel very lucky and blessed every day that I landed here at Kelly’s - he’s given me amazing opportunities and everything in between with a good family stable and all his family are fantastic.

“It’s a really good environment to work and he’s good to ride for, he doesn’t put any pressure on me.

“We come in here on a Monday or any day that I need really and we watch replays and go through races together.

“He lets me know when I’ve done well and when I haven’t and what I need to improve on.”

Growing up in a racing household as the daughter of NSW trainer and jockey Peter Graham, Cejay wasn’t short of people to look up to.

These days, she draws inspiration from good friend and Group 1-winning jockey Rachel King.

“She’s an amazing rider and she’s just a really good person, I think that’s the biggest thing for me,” Graham said.

“All the success she’s gone through - she’s still just the best person you’d ever meet and always striving to do better.

“I really look up to her and if I could achieve half of what she has I’d be a very happy person.

“Kathy O’Hara would definitely have to be another one - what she’s done in the riding ranks is phenomenal and she’s still out there and hasn’t missed a beat.”

With a meteoric rise through the Queensland apprentice ranks, the inevitable comparison will be made between Graham and the 2023 Ken Russell Queensland Apprentice of the Year Angela Jones.

Jones rode 79 Metropolitan winners, breezed to victory in the Metropolitan Apprenticeship Premiership, and claimed third place in the Metropolitan Jockeys’ Premiership last season – a record that Graham is in awe of.

“When you say who do you look up to - I guess I always think of someone that’s older than you in a sense but Ange is another person that I definitely looked up to when I moved here,” Graham said.

“I just thought to myself you know if I could just do what Ange has done or is doing I’d be really happy.

“I I could achieve what she has in a season that’d be fantastic.”

She also wants to see more female riders in the Queensland ranks, and has some advice for any young girls plying their trade in the sport.

“I think we even are seeing it now with even with the pony races they have and everyone that they are encouraging to become jockeys - the girls are nearly outnumbering the boys,” Graham said.

“I think anyone that thinks they might like to do it especially girls now that have a lot more idols to look up to, it’d be fantastic to have more girls in the room.

“Don’t ever give up is the only advice I could give because you can have a lot of setbacks but you’ve got to keep getting up and pushing on.

“I’ve had a lot of setbacks in my career and each time I’d have a fall I’d think why me or why is this happening but it’ll only make you stronger and if you want it bad enough it’ll happen, you’ve just got to keep working hard.”