Graduation Day - the horseman’s horse
GRADUATION DAY is a true - horseman’s horse! Joe Soma on Monday paid tribute to Markus Jooste’s Mayfair Speculators for allowing him to continue training sevenyear-old sprinter Graduation Day without forcing him to retire the talented, but chronically unsound gelding.
Soma said: “People think it’s all just a numbers game to Markus and (Racing Manager) Derek (Brugman), but let me tell you it’s not.
“Graduation Day has had only ten runs in almost five years, he’s had any number of injuries and ailments but his owners have stayed patient, they’ve paid the vet bills and they haven’t been on my case a single day.”
Graduation Day, returning from another long layoff, posted his first feature win in Saturday’s Gr3 Golden Loom Handicap over 1 160m on Charity Mile Day at Turffontein – a long time coming for a runner that should have had several more big trophies to his name.
Special Preview
Soma said: “Graduation Day has huge ability, he’s in the league of my former star Special Preview and he’s a horseman’s horse, it is incredibly satisfying to have worked with him through many ups and downs.
“Special Preview also had problems, and another one I had called Pure Platinum, and I think that Graduation Day actually benefitted from the experience I gained with problem horses early in my career.
“Of course one never stops learning. Graduation Day has also taught all of us in the stable how hard to work him, when to back off, when to let him rest for a while and so on. He’s been a stalwart and a pleasure despite his problems.” Graduation Day, bought from one of the first CTS Cape Premier Yearling Sales in 2013, showed big potential from day one, but soon after he started working he became unsound, pulling up sore every other day with swollen legs and joints and later with sore and brittle hooves.
He has bad bone, he’s had a knee chip removed and he has a damaged vocal cord which makes a noise when he runs, but fortunately doesn’t affect his breathing.
“We could only start racing him as a four-year-old and as you can see from his form he’s had long breaks in between runs, but he’s rewarded us with six wins. Over the years a few riders have got to know him well – Anton Marcus, Chase Maujean and Andrew Fortune have all worked him many times in turn and his groom Wellington knows him inside out so he can tell us exactly when Graduation Day is sound enough to have a run.”
Splendid Garden
Soma recalls: “One evening in January 2016 after he’d run third to Splendid Garden, Graduation Day was so sore we had to take him home in an ambulance. But that’s never happened again.
“Things have been a little better since he’s gotten older. On Saturday for example he trotted out well after the race and he’s fine this morning.”
As for Graduation Day’s hooves, farriers Renier van Rooyen and more recently Peter Dunias have spent countless hours doing fixing and preparation jobs to get him race-ready at times when all the other niggling factors seem to fall into place.
“We throw down a layer of soil in his stable with the bedding on top of the soil so he doesn’t have to stand on a concrete floor with his soft hooves. His hooves have to recover, grow out again properly after each run,” Soma explained.
For the next few weeks assistant trainer Gabi Soma will also perform his ice treatment, and he patiently massages Graduation Day’s legs every day.
Soma said: “We only have a little time now before the Gr2 Merchants on Summer Cup Day and if Graduation Day responds and shows us he can run again so soon, he will. We’ll take it day by day.” He’s rewarded his connections with courage, heart, knowledge, a good attitude and, with a some luck, the big stakes may still come because he is not done yet! - tt