Born in Lexington, Kentucky, Walter Rollins first worked in the racing industry as a stable hand for H. Price McGrath, owner of McGrathiana Stud.
[1] As a trainer, Rollins spent the majority of his career at racetracks in the New York/New Jersey area, making his home in The Bronx, New York.
His first major success came with the colt General Monroe with whom he won the 1883 and 1884 editions of the Saratoga Cup and the inaugural running of the Suburban Handicap in 1884.
[4] Plagued by health problems, by 1901 Rollins had hired trainer Robert Healey to assist him and then retired in 1903 at age forty-six.
He was living in The Bronx, New York near the Jerome Park Racetrack at the time of his death.