Sydney Graham and her 7-year-old stallion Dupont First won the Mountain Valley Stampede in Heber City, Utah, on Aug. 1, stopping the clock at 16.49 for $7,740 and the fastest run ever recorded on a WPRA standard pattern at a professional rodeo.
And that wasn’t all she pulled off that weekend. Four rodeos in five days paid her $16,643.
The standard record had stood since last August, when Makenna Shook ran 16.53 on XV Mario at the Cassia County Fair in Burley, Idaho. Hailey Kinsel held it twice before that, at 16.56 in the eighth round of the 2020 NFR and 16.63 at Dodge City earlier that season, and Benette Barrington-Little held it at 16.68 from 2011. It has moved four times in 15 years.
Graham says Heber City was the perfect arena for him to do it in.
“He truly thrives in these big outdoor pens on a standard pattern with the crowd,” Graham said. “He likes the wide open. He’s going to turn. And that’s where he thrives, I think, the best.”
Dupont First (Duponte x First Fervor x First Down Dash) is a sorrel stallion owned by Run Away Ranch, the Abilene, Texas operation Graham runs with Jimmy Parker, and he stands at KB Ranch in Comanche. Graham bought him as a yearling in August 2020 at the Ruidoso Select Yearling Sale. His sire was deceased by then. Duponte won the Grade 1 Heritage Place Futurity and $921,237 on the track before dying at age 6. Dupont First comes out of his first foal crop.
The stallion’s confidence is the part Graham keeps coming back to.
“It’s honestly a game changer for me, because he is so confident,” she said. “I am more confident because of it. He’s so confident that I can just fully trust him to go fast, and he does his job.”
She credits herself with less.
“I’ve had to become a better jockey for him,” Graham said. “Most of the time, if there’s mistakes, it was probably my fault. So I’ve learned to just keep my hands down and let him do his job.”
“He’s so good I forget that he is a young horse,” she said. “I don’t really tune on him very much.”
The Calgary Stampede is where the stallion gained even more attention than he’d received in 2026, right from the first round of his pool.
“He went out and ran a 16.99 the first day at Calgary, but I drug the second barrel,” Graham recalled. “So I knew he could do it. He’s going to win the round eventually, is what I thought.”
He did. The next day he ran 16.87, the fastest time of the rodeo to that point, and won the round for $7,000.
That is the whole partnership in miniature, in Graham’s telling.
“I had a lot of missed opportunities on him. I hit a lot of barrels to win a lot of money—I mean a lot of money—before anybody knew his name,” Graham said. “People didn’t realize that, obviously, because you’re not in the results if you hit a barrel. So people forget that he was a winner, a true winner already. And then finally we learned how to get around the barrels and win.”
“All it takes is one great horse, God and some determination, and you can just about do anything you want.“
Sydney Graham
She is doing it on one horse. Graham posted earlier this summer about adding to the string to take some pressure off the stallion, and then did not.
“The day after I posted that, I did really well…maybe it made Trump a little mad,” Graham said, laughing. “So I texted my cousin, and he told me we don’t need a backup horse. And right now we don’t have one still. It’s just Trump. He’s already proven he can do it for this long. Why am I doubting him?”
Heber City has been quick before. Kinsel won the Mountain Valley Stampede there in 16.59 in 2024, and four women went under 16.90 in the round Graham won this year.
Tricia Aldridge, a friend of Graham’s, riding the stallion Adios Pantalones, was second at Heber City in 16.66 for $6,192, with Emma Smith third (16.78, $5,031), Hayle Gibson-Stillwell fourth (16.81, $3,870), Abby Phillips fifth (16.83, $3,096) and Kathy Grimes sixth (16.86, $2,322).
At Preston, Graham was second in 16.94 for $3,519 behind Michelle Alley and Lipstick N Stilletos (16.92, $4,398). She slipped on the third barrel at the War Bonnet Round Up in Idaho Falls and still tied for 10th with Carlee Otero (17.17, $588 each).
Where she showed up after her run in the US was Alberta. Graham was hauling north when BarrelRacing.com talked for her Heber City interview, going for one run in Canada before turning back to the States. She ended up third at the Strathmore Stampede in 17.39 behind Kylie Whiteside and Austyn Tobey, worth $4,796.35.
“I’m a little crazy. My game plan’s a little bit crazy, but it’s working so far, so we’re just going to keep trying to do it.”
What she wants out of it has not changed since the 2025 Ruby Buckle East, where the pair banked more than $50,000 and Graham told the girls outside the arena that a nobody can win.
“I truly want to be that person that gives anybody a chance of hope, because that was me,” Graham said. “I used to sit at home and watch those girls and just be like, man, I wish I had a fast horse so I could try that. All it takes is one, and God, and some determination, and you can just about do anything you want.”
“That’s what Trump is for me. He’s my one once-in-a-lifetime horse.”
Sydney Graham