Page 82 - September 2015

Racing Revivalist
Herb Graham played a major role in revitalizing the Texas racing industry
by Diane Rice
In the world of Quarter Horse and Paint racing, the name Herb Graham conjures up a rich legacy of top-dollar races: The Graham Farms Futurity,
Graham Farms Derby, the Graham Paint Futurity — later to become the Speedhorse Graham Paint and Appaloosa Futurity — and the West Texas Winnermaker all offered irresistible purses that ignited racing participation in the state of Texas.
“I’m thankful for the legendary contribution he made to racing in Texas,” says friend and business associate Dr. Charles Graham of Southwest Stallion Station in Elgin, Texas. “He did more for racing early on than anybody. We had futurities down at Goliad and Laredo, and Del Rio was an old historical race town in the ‘30s and ‘40s, but he just revived that. He put all that money in there [the Graham Farms Futurity and Derby] and that got everybody’s enthusiasm up and it just went
on from there. It became a happening that you attended and looked forward to.”
According to the Texas Horseracing Hall of Fame, the Graham Farms Futurity, first run at Val Verde Downs in Del Rio in 1983 — prior to the return of pari-mutuel wagering to Texas — offered purses of $250,000, and in its third year
reached $325,935. It went on to assume Grade 1 status and paid out more than $3 million in the 11 years Graham Farms sponsored the race. Also well supported, the Graham Farms Derby paid out nearly $1 million in those 11 years.
Adding Paint racing to his resume in the early 1990s, Herb applied the knowledge gained from past successes to found the Graham Paint Futurity in 1998. The Graham became the richest Paint race in history. It continued
to break its own record, and in 2015, run at Remington Park on May 30, the race — now the Speedhorse Graham Paint & Appaloosa Futurity-G1 — offered a purse of $213,500.
Partnered with Bobby Cox, Herb also sponsored the West Texas Winnermaker Futurity run at Bandera Downs in 1994, at Manor Downs in 1995 and 1996, and at Retama Park in Selma, Texas, in 1997.
“Herb has always been this guy that just wants to build and build and go on and do more and more,” says his wife, Ginger. “At the time we started the Graham Farms Futurity, even though it was prestigious, horses that won then went on to Ruidoso. There wasn’t much
money to run at in Texas. He did it to promote and enhance racing in Texas. And in general, everything he ever did in the horse business was to do what he could to better the industry.”
A PLANTED SEED
Born in Eunice, New Mexico, in 1938, Herb grew up in Odessa, Texas. “The earliest I remember, my uncle in Oklahoma had a Paint horse and I’d ride it,” he says of his roots in the equine industry. “I was just always drawn to horses.”
When he moved to Santa Anna, Texas, for his last two years of high school, Herb met Ginger. “He was tall and good looking and the new guy in town,” she jokes. They married in 1959.
In 1970 Herb and Ginger bought a little ranch in Ballinger, Texas. “If you’ve got some property, right away you think you need a horse, so we got some to ride,” Ginger, a hairdresser at the time, says. “And then, you think you need to do something with them.”
Their local veterinarian, Dr. Elrod, sold them a Thoroughbred mare and their horse business escalated from there. “We thought, we have this mare so we ought to breed her,
The Grahams’ first stakes win was with St. Easter in the 1978 Lubbock Downs Spring Futurity
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