Graham girls take the reins on Inter Dominion quest

And while a trip to Victoria for the SENTrack Inter Dominion series had long been in her diary, the 27-year-old is now preparing for an even bigger workload through Australasia’s most prestigious carnival than first expected.

The Queensland-based Graham is set to embark on the trip of a lifetime with her sister Stephanie and their family’s squaregaiter Majestic Harry (Majestic Son), who secured his spot in the Inter Dominion Trotting Championship with victory in last Saturday night’s Group 2 Spring Sprint at Albion Park.

The race carried a golden ticket into the ID22 heats, and the five-year-old gelding was able to snatch it with a narrow front-running victory in the 1660m dash.

The result solidified plans for the Graham girls to bring the horse down south for the series, which kicks off with the opening round of heats at Ballarat on November 26.

Graham said the Inter Dominion had started to slip off the radar for Majestic Harry, but was put front and centre again after his impressive performance on Saturday night.

“We own him ourselves as a family so that makes it even more special,” Graham said.

“My sister (Stephanie) is going to come down with me and she is actually going to take over the training (from father Darrel) for the Inter Dominion.

“So it’s going to be a girls’ trip, we will take Harry along with us and I’m sure it’ll be an adventure.”

Majestic Harry left Queensland on Wednesday and is expected in Victoria by the weekend.

Graham, a talented reinswoman, has partnered the Majestic Son gelding to five wins, and hopes to drive the horse through the ID22 series.

“I work closely with him at home with Dad and I do love sitting behind him,” she said.

“I’m obviously going to be down working for the Inter Dominion, so I just have to get the tick of approval from the bosses to let me jump away for a race to steer him. But I would really love to.

“It’s super exciting and it’s a pretty big honour to have a horse that’s good enough to compete in this series. I’m not saying we are going to come down and win, but I don’t think he’ll disgrace himself put it that way.”

Majestic Harry was purchased by the Graham family out of New Zealand late last year and won his first two starts for the Queenslanders in October of 2021.

Since then, he’s claimed another six races to take his career record to 11 victories from 63 starts.

Ballarat (November 26), Shepparton (November 29) and Geelong (December 3) will host ID22 heats, before grand finals – for both pacers and trotters – are held at Tabcorp Park Melton (December 10).

by Tim O’Connor, for HRV