One of the South-West’s outstanding trainers and drivers in 84yo Ray Grantham died on Sunday afternoon.
As a youth in Pinjarra Ray was an active participant in all the sporting pursuits that are such a major part of life in rural areas and he was a regular in the best player list in Australian Rules football, cricket and tennis often in partnership with his older brother Fred.
Born in August 1936, In 1962 Ray Grantham received his licence to train and drive pacers and it didn’t take him long to enter the winner’s list when he landed Cranwell Jack a winner at Bunbury on the 7th March 1962.
Twelve months after his introduction to training Ray won the 1963 Harvey Cup with Cranwell Jack – it was to be the first of a string of feature race wins for the Pinjarra farmer.
All-up 22 feature races were trained by Ray Grantham including a pair of Fremantle Cups with Gallant Ribbon in 1970 and Shanagar in 1975, an Empress Stakes with Little Pattie, a Stratton Cup with Bangalore, August Cup with Village Hero and a Navy Cup with Windy Jean.
While Ray was particularly proud of his wins with Gallant Ribbon (1970) and Village Hero (2007) in his home-town Pinjarra Cup it was his win with Bangalore in the one-off Princess Margaret Cup at Gloucester Park on 9th October 1972 that remained a career highlight.
Grantham extricated Bangalore from a seemingly impossible position turning for home and, in a blanket finish, he nosed out Stitchintime, James Eden and Fast Rate.
He was presented with the trophy by Princess Margaret who was at Gloucester Park as part of a Royal Visit.
For the 1973 WA Pacing Cup Ray Grantham nominated three horses for the series which was run along the lines of an Inter Dominion with three nights of heats followed by a ten horse final.
Ray won heats with both Bangalore and Dark Adair while his third nomination Shanagar was placed a couple of times to also qualify for the final.
Only once in the preceding 20 years had one trainer had more than two horses in a WA Pacing Cup and that was in 1961 when Bill Johnson contributed three of the fifteen runners that year. Needless to say, Ray Grantham’s stables had considerably less occupants than those of the State’s leading trainer.
Even with his boutique-size stable Ray Grantham was twice able to finish in the top four on the Perth Trainers Premiership and he had a loyal following in the bookmakers ring as when he came to town his horses were always capable of winning.
When Ray Grantham retired from training in 2014 he had trained some 420 winners – a tally which places him in the top 50 trainers of all time in Western Australia. Of that total 175 of the winners came in the city.
He drove 346 winners with 154 of that number coming in the city. He rarely drove for other trainers but was at the reins when Garry John won a Mount Eden Sprint for trainer Frank Gilbert and he won a Pinjarra Cup and Stratton Cup for trainer Irwin Eakin with the top-class mare Windy Jean.
While Ray’s health in recent years restricted his ability to attend trot meetings he took particular interest in his grand-daughters Madeleine and Jocelyn Young who is the State’s leading woman driver.
Jocelyn Young’s three-time winner this season Warriors Legacy was bred by Ray Grantham and his wife Pam and they also bred the dam and grand-dam of Warriors Legacy.
Fittingly, Jocelyn’s sister Madeleine Young trained and drove Kristen to win at Pinjarra on Monday afternoon.
