Cup night win relief for Graham after tough 48 hours

IT IS often said the harder the battle, the sweeter the victory.

The phrase certainly rang true for Sutton Grange trainer Ross Graham, who pulled off a stirring Bendigo Pacing Cup night success with his promising trotting mare Dossier, following a taxing 48 hours in the lead-up.

While the 10 January cup meeting was transferred from Lord’s Raceway to Melton Entertainment Park due to the declaration of a State of Disaster in Bendigo in response to the bushfires that have devastated much of Victoria, the drama for Graham began two days earlier on the way home from Thursday night’s meeting at Ballarat, where he won the opening race of the night with Tex Goes Bang and notched up placings with Quirky Character and Against The Bridle.

First his truck broke down at Castlemaine, requiring an urgent call for assistance for a three-horse float to pick up the stranded horses.

He eventually arrived home at 4.20am.

After working his team of horses on Friday morning, Graham returned to Castlemaine to pick his truck up, only to be caught in the fires that tore through Harcourt and Ravenswood.

A few short hours after his arrival home, advice was issued for Graham to evacuate his Sutton Grange property.

Frantically he moved his horses into paddocks where he believed they would be out of danger before fleeing, only to return later that night to ensure both his horses and property were safe before another almost sleepless night.

“The next morning I found the fire had come within less than 2km of home,” Graham explained.

“It looked a lot closer in the dark the night before when I was out here. There were a lot of fire trucks around this side of the fire trying to keep it at bay.

“They did a fantastic job and were pretty much able to stop it in our next door neighbour’s paddock.

“Fortunately, he pretty much only lost a patch of grass, which was a great result.

“There wasn’t much damage in Sutton Grange, but go over the mountain to North Harcourt, it’s very sad over there. There have been houses lost and a lot of infrastructure lost.”

Counting his blessings, Graham said his heart went out to everyone, locally and beyond, impacted by the fires and to those on the front lines fighting.

A Cup night win with Dossier brought a degree of relief for Graham, even despite the move of the meeting away from Bendigo to harness racing headquarters at Melton, and with a horse he hopes can take the next step in 2026.

The four-year-old mare, driven by Ellen Tormey, won for the 10th time in 60 starts, relishing a drop in class after a few luckless efforts against better company in recent weeks.

She delivered Graham his second winner of the 2026 season, coming off the back of a career-best season in 2025 that included 67 wins and 151 placings.

That performance followed a previous best 61 wins and 148 placings in 2024.

The 52-year-old modestly attributed the impressive figures to his inclination to make the most of trips to the track.

“We’ve raced a lot,” he laughed.

“We definitely loaded up the truck every time we went to the races. There weren’t too many times that we went to the races where there was a spare spot on the truck.

“It was a good year, but the main thing was just having a lot more horses going around.

“But obviously consolidating the previous year’s effort was very pleasing.”

Hopes are high he can continue the momentum in 2026.

“We’ll continue to do the same thing; have a thick enough skin and keep on putting them around,” the four-time Group 1-winning trainer said.

 

“We’ll ride the lows and keep on pushing on.

“I haven’t got any real stars at the minute, but there’s some nice ones.

“(A 23-time winner for $364,443 in prize earnings) Nephew Of Sonoko is in the twilight of his career and is pretty much done.

“Avant Gard is probably my next best trotter. He went well the other night in the (Bendigo) Trotters Cup and was fourth, but he’s probably a rung below the better ones.

“He’s a nice metro-type horse.

“Dossier is a nice mare and tries hard, but is probably not as good as Avant Gard.”

Having pulled through for Graham after an anxious lead-up to Cup night, he is optimistic of a metro win breakthrough for Dossier, whose biggest win to date was her most recent.

He harbours similar aspirations for his four-year-old trotting gelding Quirky Character, who was second on Cup night, and boasts three wins and six placings from 19 starts early in his career.

“He is on a fairly light mark and is pretty raw for what he has done,” Graham said.

“He hasn’t done a lot of racing, but has already won a metro race.”

The highlight was his success in last year’s Vicbred Super Series Silver Trot Final at Melton in November.