Grafterburners blasts through in Sunlight

By Danny Matthews

An unexpected approach encouraged a turn in direction and a significant change of fortune for trainer Kelly Schweida and the connections of boom colt Grafterburners with victory in the second running of the Magic Millions Sunlight 3YO Plate at Gold Coast.

For the slot owned by Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott in the $3 million 1100 metre dash, bloodstock specialist Bruce Slade sought Grafterburners with a deal done to secure the runner of choice.

"All credit to Bruce," Schweida said. 

"We were going to go to a different option before we got the slot. We were going to go to the Vo Rogue, but this will do."

Grafterburners overcame difficulties in the straight to make a run along the rail with James McDonald aboard having freshly returned from a stint in Hong Kong.

McDonald described the winner of six of his 12 starts so far as 'outstanding' and the son of sprinter Graff has lucrative options ahead.

"He's eligible for the $1 million race that El Morzillo won down the Flemington straight but he's also eligible for the Jewel here for QTIS horses," Schweida said.

"That is hard to knock back."

Grafterburners beat home the Brad Widdup-trained Nashville Jack with Sylph in third.

Earlier on in the card, Miss Joelene, also trained by Schweida, notched a unique double when winning the $500,000 Magic Millions The Wave. 

Miss Joelene won The Wave in 2025 when the race was run at Sunshine Coast. 

Schweida said that Miss Joelene would back up in the Magic Millions Subzero on Saturday.

"She's got a good back-up record. She ran third in that race last year after The Wave and she won after Ipswich Cup day, so she'll back up in the 2200 metre race," Schweida said.

His confidence in jockey Cejay Graham staying aboard the five-year-old mare was not lost on the young rider.

"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," she said.

The newly minted Magic Millions Gold Raceday attracted around 9,000 people to the twilight meeting where more than $7 million in prize money was on offer.

Meanwhile, the colts and the fillies' divisions of the final lead-up races to Saturday's Magic Millions 2YO Classic delivered impressive outcomes as race experience paid off for Shiki and Itchintogo in their victories.

The Tony Gollan-trained Itchintogo won the Aquis Gold Nugget for colts and geldings while the Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott-trained Shiki put her positive progression to good use winning the Gold Pearl for fillies.

Itchintogo sits at $11 in the Magic Millions 2YO Classic market while Shiki is the $6 second favourite to Warwoven at $2.

"I wanted to have him in this after he won the other day," Gollan said with reference to the win at Doomben on December 6. 

"Bringing him here gets that freshness off him then we'll give him an easy week and give ourselves a chance to give it a shake next week."

"A lot of horses have won the week before then won the race (2YO Classic). The stats on the Saturday are just as good."