19-year-old takes on harness racing

MERCER, Pa. — Sierra Graham says she is always one of the youngest drivers – if not the youngest – when she takes the reins in harness horse racing.

The 19-year-old’s dream of becoming a thoroughbred jockey changed to becoming a standardbred driver because she kept growing. Thoroughbred jockeys are more limited in height and weight, compared with harness drivers who sit on a seat on a cart attached to the horse. The maximum weight for a thoroughbred jockey, with the saddle, is 126 pounds.

“Everyone told me I was going to be too heavy for that, and I ended up being too tall and too heavy,” she said. “I’ve been on a horse before I could walk, and I just always thought it was cool to race them.”

Graham is a 2015 Jackson-Milton High School graduate and has been driving – harness drivers are the equivalent of thoroughbred jockeys – in county fairs across Ohio this summer.

For the complete story, read Sunday's Vindicator and Vindy.com