AFRICAN-AMERICANS IN THE THOROUGHBRED INDUSTRY

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African-Americans in the thoroughbred industry have frequently had ties to Paris, Ky. As part of a Black History Month celebration in 1992 (also the bicentennial of Kentucky's statehood), Churchill Downs race track presented to Ms. Melvia Fields of Paris a collection of photos and information featuring highlights of the track museum's collection on African-Americans in the thoroughbred industry. The items were framed by Daugherty's, a local paint and decorating shop, and are permanently displayed in our library. The following information is transcribed from that display. Click here for Related Links.

Annette Cooke learned of the display from this web site and came to the library to see it in 2003. Her grandfather, Clarence "Pick" Dishman, is one of the jockeys featured in the display.

African-American Jockeys

Throughout the 19th century, African-American jockeys dominated their profession, traveling the elite racing circuit that took them from New Orleans in the winter to Tennessee and Ky. in the spring and to New York's Saratoga Springs in August (where the son of Kentucky's famed antebellum jockey Abe Speck settled, became a renowned chef and created the potato chip!). 

Identifying riders by ethnic heritage is difficult, as it was rarely recorded in official racing records. Then, as now, the average jockey's career was brief, usually not more than several years. In the absence of modern medicine and nutrition, injury and weight gain took a heavy toll on young riders, leaving a select few who rode long enough to become stars. 

Black jockeys rode 14 of the first 15 Derby contenders in 1875, but none gained lasting fame the way riders of the 1880's and 1890's did, especially when they capped their careers with a Kentucky Derby victory. 

Not all great riders won the Kentucky Derby, although they rode often. Dale Austin, Shelby "Pike" Barnes, Thomas Britton, Raleigh Colston, Anthony Hamilton, Jimmie Lee, W. "Monk" Overton (winless in eight Kentucky Derby rides), John Stovall, Linc Jones and Roy "Tiny" Williams were some of the better known turf celebrities whose names appeared regularly in the sporting news and society pages of national papers. 

American racing fell on hard times from 1900 until the 1920's. An economic downturn in the 1890's took a heavy toll, but it was the crusading anti-gambling leagues that closed the "turf investment companies" as bookmakers called their businesses, and shut down racing everywhere except Kentucky and Maryland. 

"Father Bill" Daly, a notorious turf personality, established a school for jockeys at Coney Island that attracted teenagers who were brutally punished if they didn't "ride to win." With money in short supply, racing became a cutthroat game. Reports of intimidation and racially motivated racing "accidents" began to appear in the press. It was no coincidence that African-Americans, threatened and murdered by the Ku Klux Klan in the south and denied opportunities to ride in the north, had all but left racing by 1920. 

In 1952, sportswriter Prescott Sullivan told it like it was. "Officially, horse racing does not discriminate, but it has long permitted a Jim Crow conspiracy to stand... (Unlike baseball) racing's color line is of more recent origin. It goes back about forty years. Prior to that time there were many colored riders and some of them were rated among the best in the business."

	Oliver Lewis won the first Kentucky Derby in 1875, then trained and worked for a bookmaker at the end of his riding career. His detailed analyses of races were the forerunners of modern racing charts.
	William Walker - Few men have contributed more to the development of the American thoroughbred than William Walker, who won the Derby in 1877.
	George Garret Lewis - For teenager George Garret Lewis, a "most excellent" jockey, the Kentucky Derby was his last great race. Three weeks later he was injured when his horse fell. He died at his home in Paris, Kentucky, on July 5, 1880, less than two months after the Derby.
	Erskine "Babe" Henderson rode Joe Cotton to three American derby victories in 1885 -- the Kentucky, the Tennessee, and the Coney Island. He then dropped out of sight for years. At Kentucky Derby time in 1913, the Louisville Courier-Journal reported the 49- year-old Henderson back at the Downs as a trainer, still small enough to gallop his own horses.
	Isaac Murphy - From 1877 to 1893, Murphy had 11 Derby mounts, beginning with Vera Cruz, a betting favorite, in 1877. He won the Derbies of 1884, 1890 and 1891. He did not approve of jockeys betting, and never did so himself. Isaac Murphy ranks among the greatest and best known athletes of the 19th century. The British compared Murphy to their greatest rider, Fred Archer, calling him "the colored Archer." American sportswriters were quick to reply. "Archer," they corrected, was "the white Murphy." His career began at Churchill Downs at the 1875 inaugural spring meet on a horse that finished last. But within the year, he was winning regularly. During his career, Murphy compiled a 44% win record that has never been equaled. In 1891, when jockeys were seldom mentioned, the Louisville Courier-Journal devoted an entire column to Murphy after his third Derby victory on Kingman. Tragically, less than five years later on February 12, 1896, Murphy died of pneumonia. The estate he left to his wife was valued at $50,000. Murphy's funeral, one of the largest ever in Lexington, was attended by hundreds of mourners, but the concrete marker which his friends erected did not bear his name. Like many heroes of the past, Murphy was forgotten by all but a few who knew his record well. In the 1950's, Amelia Buckley, Keeneland's first librarian, read that Murphy was buried in New Orleans. Wanting to set the record straight, she inspired Lexington sports writer Frank Borries to search for Murphy's grave. Borries finally met a man who remembered the site. Murphy, racing's most acclaimed and respected horseman, was reinterred beside the great racehorse Man O' War at Faraway Farm. In 1976 both graves were relocated to the Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington.
	"Babe" Hurd - When 1882 winner "Babe" Hurd grew too big to ride in thoroughbred races, he became a successful steeplechase rider. He died at Longridge Farm in Paris, Kentucky, in 1928.
	Isaac Lewis - Little is known about Isaac Lewis, winner of the 1887 Derby, except for his numerous American stakes victories in the late 1880's and early 1890's.
	Alonzo Clayton - Louisvillian George Long of Bashford Manor gave Alonzo Clayton his first Derby mount in 1892. Azra, with Clayton on board, gave Long his first Derby victory by a nose. Clayton then went east, where the New York World reported that he was "cutting a wide swath at Saratoga and had more engagements than he could attend to."
	James "Soup" Perkins - Lexington-born James "Soup" Perkins won the 1895 Derby wire-to-wire on Halma. The 90-pound rider told the reporters he was "going on 16" at the time of his victory, having started riding when he was ten. His riding contract paid him $5000 a year, more than most bank presidents made.
	Willie Sims - Second only to Isaac Murphy as a media personality of the 1890's, Willie Simms won the 1896 and 1898 Derbies. He rode in England, but his revolutionary short stirrup riding style was not popular here.
	James Winkfield - Chilesburg, Kentucky, native "Jimmy" Winkfield was a daredevil rider who caused a four-horse pileup in his first race, earning a year's suspension for the deed. "A gentleman on the ground, a demon in the saddle" throughout his long career, he rode his first Derby horse at 20, winning when he was 21 and 22. He finished second in 1903, then headed for Russia where he stayed until the Revolution began in 1917. Escaping across Europe with 200 thoroughbreds in tow, he settled in France to train there until his death in 1974. Winkfield came to the 1961 Derby for a special infield presentation celebrating the 60th anniversary of his winning rides.
Kentucky produced two more riding legends before the era of the black jockey drew to a close:
	Jimmy Lee - On June 5, 1907, Jimmy Lee won every race on the card at Churchill Downs. "Black Star Shines, Jockey Lee Rides Six Winners" was the half-inch headline in the Louisville Times the next day. He continued his winning ways at Latonia and New Orleans before injuries curtailed his career. The May 15, 1915, Thoroughbred Record recorded his death at age 28. "Report has it that Lee was penniless when he died, although he had won a small fortune during his career on the turf."
	Clarence "Pick" Dishman was the last of the well-known jockeys from the Bluegrass. He is shown winning the 1913 Two Mile Stakes at Douglas Park in Louisville. He rode until 1932, then became a trainer and exercise rider.
	African-American Trainers Kentucky's Legacy of Great Trainers American racing has its deepest roots in Virginia, where the talents of African American horsemen made them among the most highly valued slaves in colonial times. On racetracks, African-American trainers were figures of authority because of their character, dignity and expertise.  Many trainers started out as jockeys, gaining the feel for a horse that comes only from time spent in the saddle. Because of their experience, they knew horses "inside out" and instructed their jockeys in the art of racing.  Racing histories relate that the best trainers were given their freedom and paid for their services, sometimes by their former owners. Because Kentucky's antebellum slave laws required freed men to leave the state, some trainers were nominally slaves although their status and earning power made them well-respected members of the racing community.  In spite of discrimination, African-American horsemen persevered as trainers. C. Banks trained the favorite Ten Point for the 1913 Derby, then suffered a stunning upset when longshot Donerail nosed him out. Raymond White had horses in the 1932 and 1944 Derbies and Edison "Ned" Gaines trained King Clover for the 1951 Derby. Not until 1989 would there be another black trainer in the Derby, when Maryland cheered for Hank Allen's Northern Wolf.  Other stakes-winning Kentucky trainers include Joe Willis, Carl Sitgraves, Arthur Perossier, Jake Bachelor and Oscar Dishman Jr.
	William "Uncle Billy" Walker - One of the men who personifies "the best" of American racing was William Walker, whose career as a jockey was outstanding. Had he done no more than win the 1878 "match of the century" at Churchill Downs aboard Ten Broeck over Molly McCarthy, his place in history would be assured. Walker rode in four Derbies, winning on Baden-Baden in 1877. When he became too heavy to ride, he turned to training. At the time of his death in 1933, he was the acknowledged American authority on thoroughbred pedigree, a consultant to prominent Kentucky breeder John E. Madden on matters of conformation and breeding. Although crippled by arthritis, he was a fixture at all the prominent sales, both in Kentucky and New York, a wealthy and elegant gentleman who left no heir to his encyclopedic knowledge. He is buried at the Louisville Cemetery at the corner of Eastern Parkway and Poplar Level Road.
	Dudley Allen - Allen co-owned and trained the 1891 Derby winner Kingman, ridden by Isaac Murphy, but he was well known on the turf long before that victory, and probably trained the 1876 winner Vagrant. Two years later he tied with Henry Brown as leading trainer at the Churchill Downs Spring Meet. Allen retired from the turf many years before his death, having accumulated a good-sized fortune, and lived in Lexington.
	Ansel Anderson - Ansel, who, as a slave, trained the great southern racehorse Brown Dick, was sold to Kentuckian Keene Richards in 1856. When Richards fell on hard times, R.A. Alexander, Richards' friend and neighbor, bought Ansel, freed him and paid him handsomely for his services. Guided by Ansel, Alexander's Woodburn Stud (today Airdrie Stud) became one of the foremost racing and breeding farms of the south. After Alexander's death, Anderson trained the first Kentucky Derby winner, Aristides, for H. Price McGrath.  Photo above (upper right corner of frame): R. A. Alexander's Asteroid with trainer Ansel Anderson and jockey Ed Brown. Signed "E. Troye, Dec. 11, 1864". Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon.
	William Perkins - When he died at age 54 in 1927, William Perkins, brother of trainer Frank and jockey/trainer James "Soup" Perkins, had just headed the list of American trainers of winners, having saddled the winners of 82 races. He stabled his horses at the old Lexington Association track. At his death his operation was turned over to Raleigh Colston, who died a year later.
	Raleigh "Rolla" Colston - Born in Woodford County on Uncle John Harper's Nantura Stud, Colston was associated with horses all his life. As a teenager, he rode in the first Derby, but finished out of the money. In 1883, he was stable foreman at Derby winner Leonatus' barn. His success as a trainer came in the 20th century. He entered the Derby with a horse he owned and trained, named Colston, finishing third. At his death in 1928, the Thoroughbred Record remembered him as a man "respected by all who knew him... an ornament to his profession and race." The Louisville Herald-Post's Robert Dundon wrote of him, "He had the real Kentucky background, and was a horseman of the old school."
	Ed Brown - Brown began his career as a jockey, with Ansel Anderson as his mentor, and went on to be one of the best known trainers and turf authorities of the late 19th century. He won the Derby in 1877 with Baden-Baden (with his protege William Walker in the irons) and developed three other Derby winners: Hindoo, Ben Brush, and Plaudit. Monrovia, winner of the 1893 Kentucky Oaks, was his filly, entered in the race under the ownership of "E. Brown & Co." Brown died in Louisville in 1906, one of the wealthiest African-Americans in Kentucky.
	Men Who Speak For Horses Stallion managers, shed foremen and grooms are a thoroughbred farm's mainstay. The ability to recognize when a horse is ill or in pain, and correctly interpret these subtle signs, can mean the difference between life and death. Will and Tom Harbut, Clem Brooks, Sam Ransom, Eddie Sweat and Charles Clay are among the most famous of these men.  Owners Owners are the unheralded heroes of the racing industry. They pay the bills, but in a sport where the horse is king, they are often overlooked except when they are celebrities in their own right.  Leading Men There is an art to showing a horse in the sales arena where a frisky yearling, a studdish stallion or a temperamental broodmare can become an uncontrollable half-ton of fury in the blink of an eye.  It is a matter of psychology, instinct, reaction, and anticipation - staying one step ahead of the horse and convincing the animal that he likes being there, according to Wilbert "Chalkeye" Jones, the youngest of Keeneland's famed trio of Keeneland Sales ringhandlers.      Related Links: African-Americans in Racing http://horseracing.about.com/library/weekly/aa012499.htm African Americans in the Derby http://www.kentuckyderby.com/2005/derby_history/ african_americans_in_the_derby/ Churchill Downs http://www.churchilldowns.com Kentucky Derby Museum http://www.derbymuseum.org