Page 84 - September 2015

Herb mentioned to R.D. Hubbard that he liked Paints one day, and Hubbard gave Graham the mare Breakaway Baby, who went on to produce top Paints such as . . .
2-Time World Champion runner/ World Champion sire Texas Hero, APHA’s #4 all-time leading sire
THE GIFT HORSE
In the early 1990s, Herb and Ginger branched out into Paint racing and soon became a dominant force in that industry as well, due in large part, Herb says, to a fortuitous gift from R.D. Hubbard: a Paint mare named Breakaway Baby. “I was visiting with R.D. one day and mentioned that I liked Paints,” Herb says, “and he sent her to me.”
Later, Herb tried to settle up for the mare. “I don’t know how much her babies had won,” Herb says, “But R.D. wouldn’t take any of the money.”
Breakaway Baby (Dash For Cash – Larking Kit, Lanolark) produced a long list of successful Graham-bred runners. The best of these — and perhaps of the entire Graham Farms legacy — was Texas Hero, by Raise A Jet. “He stands out because he was such a good stud, too,” Herb says. “It’s really hard to come up with a horse that also sires.”
The 1991 bay tobiano stallion won back-to-back World Running Championships in 1993 and 1994 and earned the APHA Leading Sire title in 1998
and 2000. According to paintracing.com, he was the third Paint horse ever to exceed $100,000 in earnings and in 2004 he became the All-Time Leading Sire of Paint money-earners with $2,245,515. As of August 7, 2015, his get earnings totaled $3,375,442.06 from 270 earners. He sired 29 stakes winners, 60 stakes
2-Time Champion & leading sire Concho County
placed, 163 Register of Merit earners, 14 Champions and one World Champion. In 2007 he became Paint racing’s first $3 million sire.
Texas Hero retired in 2010 and was returned by then owners Buddy and Ann Albin of Denton, Texas, to Graham Farms, where he died in 2014.
Breakaway Baby also produced Raise A Jet sons Raise Cash, Concho County, Texas Dash, White Lace and Relentless Jet, all of who earned Registers of Merit and most of who earned superior event and/or running championships.
The Graham Farms broodmare band grew to become one of the largest in the nation. With Paint babies trained by the late Lewis Wartchow, the Grahams attained Leading Owner of money-earning Paints status for six consecutive years from 2001- 2005, Leading Breeder of money-earning Paints for six consecutive years from 1998-2003, and Lifetime Leading Paint Breeder and Owner, with 105 starters in 1,011 races, 186 wins (39 stakes wins), 57 stakes placed and earnings of $1,774,204.68.
Herb’s AQHA breeder earnings total $1,012,981, with 74 wins (7 stakes) out of 517 starts, 81 seconds (7 stakes) and 77 thirds (5 stakes). Herb was inducted into the Texas Horseracing Hall of Fame in 2005.
CELEBRATING SUCCESS
As the demands of Herb’s entertainment ventures kept him in Nashville more and more, he and Ginger scaled back on their horse operation, and in 2006 they dispersed the herd. They still have about 30 head, whose speed breeding lends itself to producing barrel prospects for their daughter, Rainy Pratt.
Although Rainy is on hiatus from barrel competition due to the birth of her and husband Jake’s second son in July 2015, the family still travels together to rodeos where Jake competes in calf roping.
Leading sire Relentless Jet
When asked what the future holds, both Herb and Ginger reply that they’ll just keep on working. “I like working better than anything,
I think,” Herb says. “I’ve got all the different [entertainment ventures] going, so I can go from one to another. I golf maybe twice a year and do a little fishing. And, I like to ride. I have a good horse for pleasure riding.”
Ginger says he’ll never retire. “Herb comes home from the office and works on the farm until dark. We’re not much for traveling and vacationing,” she adds. “We went on vacation years ago, and that was so boring for both of us we never did it again! When we were heading home, I said to Herb, ‘You don’t ever have to take me anywhere again except to Kentucky
to the horse farms.’ We went to the Kentucky Derby and that was a lot of fun. But we stay
at home. All of our ‘vacation’ times were just heading to the horse races every weekend. Now that we’re getting some age on us, we’re involved with our daughter and grandbabies more.”
Roger Fagan sums up Herb: “He listens and he always took advice. And he told me, ‘If you’re going to do something, put all the information you have on the table and there’ll be an arrow pointing which way to go.’” Herb Graham obviously followed that arrow in each of his business ventures — including horse racing. And it took him to the top every time.
Ginger, Rainy & Herb Graham
82 SPEEDHORSE, September 2015