New agent may help Graham maintain early momentum

James Graham is a longshot to be leading rider at Fair Grounds when the calendar hits March 24, 2019, closing day of the Fair Grounds meet. But Dec. 1, 2018? That’s a different story.

Graham came into week 3 of the 2018-19 Fair Grounds season with a fine record of 12-14-10 from 51 mounts. Only two jockeys – Colby Hernandez with 54 mounts, Mitchell Murrill with 57 – have ridden more races at the meet, and no one has ridden more winners. Murrill, through racing on Nov. 25, had 10 winners.

Graham, a native of Finglas, Ireland, who turns 40 in May, is no stranger to the early-season Fair Grounds dynamic. He gets to New Orleans early for a reason – to beat the influx of riders based at Churchill Downs, which annually wraps up its fall racing season in late November, overlapping the start of Fair Grounds.

“It all changes this week when everyone gets to town,” Graham said.

Still, there’s no erasing two strong opening weeks. Graham came for the meet’s opening the last two seasons and entered December with six wins last year and seven in 2016.

“I’m grateful for whatever anyone is giving me right now,” he said. “I love my work. I enjoy what I do. Getting on horses, that’s the easy part and always has been for me.”

Graham was leading rider at Fair Grounds during the 2014-15 season when he rode 106 winners. Early in 2016, his longtime agent and friend Britt McGehee died at 58 of cancer. It’s not wrong to say Graham’s career hasn’t been the same since McGehee got too sick to work.

The agent Frank Bernis had Graham’s book in Kentucky this summer and fall, but Bernis is wintering in Florida with Brian Hernandez Jr. The veteran and well-connected Louisiana agent Rick Mocklin now is booking Graham’s mounts. During these first two weeks, Mocklin has put Graham on a diverse passel of rides, from lower-level conditioned claimers to maiden special weights trained by Steve Asmussen, for whom Graham won two races. Graham gets a steady diet of chances for trainer Tom Amoss, and Amoss always wins races in New Orleans.

Last Fair Grounds meet, Graham would’ve won 61 races had he maintained his pace from the first two weeks; he wound up winning 33. A statistical correction is coming again, but it might not be as steep this time.