Between the years 1875-1902, a dozen black jockeys were aboard winning mounts 16 times in the Kentucky Derby. There hasn't been a black jockey in the winner's circle since Jimmy Winkfield 105 years ago.
In an information-packed 110 pages, authors James Robert Saunders and Monica Renae Saunders takes the reader back to a forgotten period in American history that was yet another victim to the hate of institutionalized racism.
Biographies of the 12 jockeys are richly supplemented with an overview of society and the sport, along with background material that dates back to slavery, when most jobs in the plantation stables were done by slaves & jockeys as young as 10 or 11 piloted the Thoroughbreds in races throughout the nation.
How bizarre it is that opportunities in the sport that began with slavery were then destroyed by slavery in the guise of Jim Crow. The reverberations are still felt today, as opportunities at the top levels of the sport have remained difficult - if not impossible - for blacks to achieve.
The appendix includes lists of champion jockeys, trainers who had runners in the race and owners who had starters in the field. The Thoroughbred owners include Berry Gordy and Stanley Burrell, better-known as MC Hammer, whose racer was aptly named, Dance Floor.
This is a story of triumph in the face of great odds and the tragedy of a nation that seeminngly can't ride fast enough away from the real history of racism in society & sports.
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