Earl (Sandy) Graham - Brookside Cemetery - Winnipeg MB - Occupational/Hobby Grave Stones on Waymarking.com

~ text from a nearby plaque ~
Earl (Sandy) Graham
1911 - 1227

Earl Graham, a 16 year-old jockey from California, spent the summer of 1927 at the Polo Park Race Track, which considered to be one of the world's premier tracks. However, the treatment of jockeys at that time was appalling.

On September 10, Graham was aboard Vesper Lad when the horse suddenly down. Graham suffered a broken back and a crushed chest. With no medical aid present, Graham was forced to languish in the jockey's room all day as track officials refused his fellow jockeys' pleas to take him to the hospital. With such low pay for jockeys at the time, they were unable to raise enough cab fare to send him. Graham was finally taken to the hospital at the conclusion of the race, where he died of has injuries twelve days later.

Fellow jockey Tommy Luther, who was supposed to ride Vesper Lad, was disturbed by what he saw and come to believe that his life was spared to ensure that no jockey suffered like that again. Luther waged a campaign over the next 13 years, which led to the formation in 1940 of the Jockey's Guild, an organization credited to this day with spawning improvements for jockeys such as workers compensation, legal representation, safer tracks and proper care of injured riders.

This little known chapter in Winnipeg's rich racing history, which changed the course of horse racing forever and for the better, was a direct result from what happened to young Earl Graham that fateful day at the Polo Park Race Track.

Section 82, Lot 581
Dedicated September 22, 2003

~ from Wikipedia (visit link) ~
The sixteen-year-old Sandy Graham had no savings and there was no life insurance provided by either his employer or the race track. His impoverished family could not afford to have his remains returned home to Los Angeles, and as such he was buried in an unmarked pauper's grave in the Brookside Cemetery in Winnipeg. Sandy Graham's story was told by author Laura Hillenbrand in her 2001 number one bestselling book, Seabiscuit: An American Legend (pp. 69–70). The publicity Graham's death received as a consequence of the book's popularity, and the ensuing success of the 2003 film Seabiscuit resulted in a new headstone being erected at his grave. The bottom of the stone reads: "Remembered By His Fellow Jockeys".

Is Gravestone Showing Occupation or Hobby?: Occupation What is depicted occupation or hobby?: Jockey Date of birth: 01/01/1911 Date of death: 09/22/1927 Access hours and days: 8 am until dusk

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Date Logged Log User Rating   11/15/2013 PeterNoG visited it