Wellington Cup hero Graphic is getting close to a return to competition

The exciting stayer won the Trentham Group Two feature at just his eighth start and subsequently underwent surgery, from which he has made an excellent recovery.

“It was like a burr on the edge of his knee and he’s probably had it all his life so it was taken off and he’s great now,” said Chad Ormsby, who prepares the six-year-old with Michael Moroney at Matamata.

“He’s had a couple of jump-outs at home and everything is coming together for him and better than we expected.”

Graphic furthered his preparation on Saturday with a 1200 metre gallop alongside stablemate The Fire Inside between races at Matamata.

Ormsby said the stayer, who also claimed the Dunstan Feeds Championship Final on New Year’s Day, was likely to resume at Ellerslie later this month over 1400 metres.

“He’s quite forward in his work and we’ll take it a race at a time.”

Future targets for Graphic have yet to be firmed up, but the stable won’t have a lack of options for the six-year-old.

“We would have liked to have got him to Melbourne, but he’ll have missed the main part of the spring now,” Ormsby said.

“There’s races like the Counties, Waikato and City of Auckland Cups and then perhaps head toward the Auckland Cup. There’s always the Sydney carnival as well.”

A lightly-tried son of Volksraad, Graphic opened his account last October and then went on a hot run of form that saw him win four of his next five starts before he was rested.