The truth is, for most people, Black athletes are not the first thing that comes to mind when it comes to American horse racing.
But it’s okay since that’s the picture many people inherited. However, it is also incomplete.
Why? Well, if you go back to the beginning of American horse racing, especially the Kentucky Derby, Black horsemen were not exactly side characters. They were the sport. We’re talking about jockeys, trainers, grooms, exercise riders, stable hands, handlers, and people who make horse racing possible.
And they were not just present, but dominant. That’s the part that seems forgotten. The early history of American racing was shaped by Black skill, Black labor, Black courage, and Black speed.
Names like Isaac Murphy, Jimmy Winkfield, Oliver Lewis, Ansel Williamson, Willie Simms, Alonzo Clayton, and Edward Brown made horse racing what it is today.
Let’s learn more about Black horse racing legends that everyone should know about.
The Problem With How Racing History Gets Told
Let’s first address the problem with the history of the sport. The truth is that most people focus on the horses and forget about the hands that move the horses. Yes, that makes sense. Horses are the stars. We had incredible moments like Secretariat’s run at Belmont, which will be forever recorded in history books.
But horse racing is not only a horse story. A horse does not train itself. It does not saddle itself and does not race itself. In other words, behind every great racehorse is a whole world of human skill that we somehow forget about.
And in early American racing, much of that skill came from Black horsemen. Yeah, most people don’t know about this.
That is where the story gets complicated, because Black expertise in racing came partly from the brutal realities of slavery and post-slavery labor. Enslaved and formerly enslaved Black men worked closely with horses, often because white owners depended on their knowledge while denying them freedom, credit, and power.
Sad, but the truth. However, they turned the tables quickly and became the driving forces of the sport, proving that they also belong in the champion circle. And they should be here. After all, when it comes to modern horse race betting online, the color and culture don’t make any difference.
But let’s learn more about the Black horse racing legends that should be remembered forever.
Oliver Lewis and the First Kentucky Derby
The first Kentucky Derby was run in 1875. The winning jockey was Oliver Lewis.
That alone should make his name impossible to forget.
Lewis rode Aristides to victory in the first Derby, and the horse was trained by Ansel Williamson, another Black horseman whose name also deserves much wider recognition. Imagine that for a moment. The first running of what became America’s most famous horse race was won by a Black jockey on a horse trained by a Black trainer.
That is not a minor detail.
That is the foundation.
And yet how many casual Derby fans know Oliver Lewis? How many people watching the race every May hear his name? How many school lessons about American sports history mention that Black riders helped define the Derby from the start?
Not enough.
Isaac Murphy Was Not Just Great. He was Astonishing.
Isaac Murphy is one of those athletes whose record still sounds fake even when you know it is true.
He won the Kentucky Derby three times. He was celebrated as one of the greatest jockeys of the 19th century. He became a national sports figure at a time when America was still dragging itself through Reconstruction, segregation, and the violent backlash against Black advancement.
Murphy was not simply a good jockey.
He was a master.
He had patience, timing, intelligence, balance, and the rare ability to make difficult race decisions look almost calm. That is often the mark of a truly great rider. They do not look like they are forcing the race. They look like they understand it before everyone else does.
Jimmy Winkfield: The Last Black Derby Winner
Jimmy Winkfield’s story is almost cinematic.
He won the Kentucky Derby in 1901 and 1902, becoming one of the few jockeys ever to win the race in back-to-back years. Then his American career became tangled in the reality Black jockeys were facing at the time: racism, threats, blocked opportunities, and a racing world becoming more hostile to the riders who had once dominated it.
Winkfield eventually went overseas and built an international career.
That part of his life is incredible. He rode and won in Europe. He became a major figure abroad. He lived through war, displacement, and reinvention. His life stretched far beyond the tidy version of racing history that stops at the Kentucky Derby finish line.
But the most painful fact remains this: Winkfield was the last Black jockey to win the Kentucky Derby.
That was in 1902.
Read that again.
Willie Simms and the Riders Who Deserve More Space
Isaac Murphy and Jimmy Winkfield are the big names, but they were not alone.
Willie Simms was another remarkable Black jockey, one of the great riders of his era and a winner of major races, including the Kentucky Derby. James “Soup” Perkins won the Derby as a teenager. Alonzo Clayton became the youngest jockey to win the Kentucky Derby when he won in 1892. Edward Brown was born enslaved, became a successful jockey, and later became a major trainer.
These are not small stories.
They are pieces of a much bigger world.
Final Thoughts
So, if we look back at history, we can clearly see that Black horse racing legends once dominated the sport. They rode the horses, trained them, and understood them very clearly.
Sadly, that’s not a thing anymore. Why? Nobody knows. It’s clear that something pushed Black riders and horsemen out of the center of the industry, but we’re all hoping that they will return once again.
