Champion the Wonder Horse series; he was one of several horses that Autry rode in that production. After learning about the horse through stunt man and movie horse wrangler Tracey Layne, Autry paid $75 for the original Champion, whose sire was a Morgan trotting horse from Ardmore, Oklahoma. Trained to perform numerous tricks, Champion could untie knots, fall, roll over and play dead, come at Autry's whistle, bow, and shake his head yes and no. In one film he pushes Autry into the arms of his leading lady June Storey. By 1939 his reported worth was $25,000. The original Champion died in 1943, at
Gene S. Walker Sr. office complex at the intersection of Interstate 35 and Mann Road is named for the Walker family. Gene Walker Lake, a reservoir near Mirando City in Webb County is named in Walker's honor. A luxury condominium complex in San Antonio, the Simeon of Olmos Park, is named for Walker through his middle name by its developer, his daughter May Kathleen Walker, a Laredo native. On February 4, 2015, State Senator Judith Zaffirini of Laredo introduced a resolution, SR99, in Walker's memory. Gene S. Walker Sr. Gene Simeon Walker Sr. (March 15, 1926 – January 19, 2015), was a rancher, landowner,