Jocelyn Young Gets The Win for ‘Pa’
Jocelyn Young on Monday at Pinjarra. Photo Credit- Photography by Jodie Hallows
With Monday’s meeting at Pinjarra dedicated to passed member Ray Grantham, it was fitting that his granddaughter Jocelyn Young drove the last winner on the card for local trainer Michael Brennan.
In 1962, Ray Grantham was granted his licence to train and drive pacers, with Cranwell Jack giving the then 26-year-old his first win in the industry. That horse then went on to win the 1963 Harvey Cup and the future was bright for the young horseman, with Grantham eventually going on to win a total of 22 feature races in WA.
Grantham won two Fremantle Cups, with Gallant Ribbon winning in 1970, then five years later taking it out again with his pacer Shanagar. In 2007, his runner Village Hero was successful in taking out the Pinjarra Cup.
Ray Grantham hung up the reins in 2014 at the age of 78, training a total of 420 winners in his 52-year career, as well as driving 346 winners in his time in the cart.
His legacy, however, lives on in granddaughters Maddy and Jocelyn Young who both went on to become drivers and trainers, with both training and driving their own runners in to second placing on Monday.
“Maddy and I had a second each earlier in the day, so I’m glad one of us could go one better.”
Success for Jocelyn came up later in the day when she partnered with Michael Brennan to steer home Tiger Royal NZ to victory in the small six-horse-field in race eight. Young has now had four drives on the three-year-old for three wins, with Monday’s win seeing the gelding coming from behind the leader to win by 10.9m in 1:58:2 over the 2185m.
“I had only been driving for a couple of years before Pa became sick, but even when he was sick he always watched ours (mine and Maddy’s) races and followed with a lot of interest. Often giving us tips on how we could do better or what we did well. It always gave me great pleasure knowing he would be at home watching,”
“It was great to end the day with a win, especially with all the family being there too.” Jocelyn Young said.
Ashleigh Paikos
*Special mention to Alan Parker who generously passed on all his knowledge of Ray Grantham.