The Coach, Gray ride to WGC

Trainer Tim Gray holds The Coach still as the new World Grand Champion Tennessee walking horse gets his winner's rosette placed on his bridle. Owned by Holland, Kilgore and Barnes, the Coach won the Celebration's biggest title shortly after midnight.
(T-G Photo by Mary Reeves)

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For Billy Gray and The Coach, the last night was everything they could have hoped for -- because it ended with a World Grand Championship and their names in the history books forever.

It was a beautiful night for the last night of the show and the stands filled as the final class approached. It was, however, a little cooler than it had been in previous nights.

"Some of you hometown Shelbyville folks ought to go home and get some blankets," said announcer Bobby Sands. "You can rent them out. Eleven days ago, it was almost 100 degrees and we worried about the weather for the horses."

There was a brief break in between classes when medical care was needed for one spectator who was taken out, conscious and talking, by an ambulance. His condition was not known at press time.

Another big winner of the night was trainer Jimmy McConnell, who was named the Trainer of the Year by the Tennessee Walking Horse Trainers' Association. The win was hardly a surprise. Besides being the high points leader in the Riders Cup, McConnell has won three of the last six World Grand Championships on The Black Night Shade in 2004, on Master of Jazz in 2008 and on Watch it Now last year.

Ridden by Gray and owned by Barnes, Holland and Kilgore, this is a Skywatch son out of a Motown Magic mare, Queen of Motown. This year, he has won the reserve titles at the Woodbury Lions show and the Lynchburg shows, and won the championship at the International.

Last year, he won his qualifying class, and came in third in the World Grand Championship.