--- title: Kentucky Derby 2017: A Black Jockey Hasn't Won for a Century description: The Kentucky Derby used to be dominated by black jockeys. Once it became possible to make a good living riding, that changed. canonical: https://time.com/4766955/kentucky-derby-jockeys-history/ author: Olivia B. Waxman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-05-05T15:00:21.000Z article:modified_time: 2023-12-13T08:33:36.000Z article:section: History og:title: Kentucky Derby 2017: A Black Jockey Hasn't Won for a Century og:description: When it became possible to make a good living riding, things changed og:url: https://time.com/4766955/kentucky-derby-jockeys-history/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt812cd533349c8a1e/6988cc09656a3f1025bcfd99/winkfield-lewis-murphy-triptych.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2880 og:image:height: 1620 og:image:alt: 170504_Winkfield Lewis Murphy triptych og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Kentucky Derby 2017: A Black Jockey Hasn't Won for a Century twitter:description: When it became possible to make a good living riding, things changed twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt812cd533349c8a1e/6988cc09656a3f1025bcfd99/winkfield-lewis-murphy-triptych.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # An African-American Jockey Hasn't Won the Kentucky Derby for More Than a Century. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-sub-2026q3/newsletters?i=72f949a3-7a31-4f48-b021-baa0aa6b7c7b&cr=time-sub-2026q3-v1) * TIME Subscriptions: [time.com/subscribe-agent](/c/time-sub-2026q3/subscribe?i=72f949a3-7a31-4f48-b021-baa0aa6b7c7b&cr=time-sub-2026q3-v1) ## Video: The Apprentice [Watch (HLS stream): The Apprentice](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/rHixzkyh.m3u8) (9:17)  _Published 2017-05-04. 16-year-old apprentice jockey Amelia Hauschild races for her first career win._  by [Olivia B. Waxman](https://time.com/author/olivia-b-waxman/)  ## Olivia B. Waxman Staff Writer Updated: Dec 13, 2023 8:33 AM UTCPublished: May 5, 2017 3:00 PM UTC  (L-R) Isaac Murphy, Oliver Lewis, Jimmy Winkfield—African-American jockeys dominated the Kentucky Derby in its early years. (L-R) Isaac Murphy, Oliver Lewis, Jimmy Winkfield—African-American jockeys dominated the Kentucky Derby in its early years. Courtesy of the Kentucky Derby Museum  by [Olivia B. Waxman](https://time.com/author/olivia-b-waxman/)  ## Olivia B. Waxman Staff Writer Updated: Dec 13, 2023 8:33 AM UTCPublished: May 5, 2017 3:00 PM UTC In many sports, the professional athletes who broke through the boundaries placed around them for being African-American — like [Jackie Robinson](http://time.com/4763695/jackie-robinson-red-sox-race/) or [Jesse Owens](http://time.com/4227802/jesse-owens-race-triumph-excerpt/) — have remained famous figures of American history decades after their physical feats first made headlines. But when it comes to horse racing, the story has been somewhat reversed. The jockeys who will ride in America’s premiere races, like this Saturday’s Kentucky Derby, are largely white or Hispanic, and [many](http://www.espn.com/horse-racing/story/%5F/id/9228924/bill-finley-disappearing-american-jockey) of them hail from overseas; an African-American jockey has [not won](http://www.espn.com/horse-racing/story/%5F/id/9228924/bill-finley-disappearing-american-jockey) that race for more than a century. But the sport used to be dominated by African-American jockeys whose legacy is often forgotten. Perhaps the reason is that their early history with the sport was not the kind of thing that racing fans would prefer to remember. Enslaved men, who worked on the farms of wealthy white men, were the ones who knew the horses best, so they were the original trainers and jockeys. And, though slavery had been abolished by the time the Derby was first run, free African-Americans continued to hold many of the working-class jobs that were necessary to make a stable run. Thirteen of the 15 jockeys in the inaugural Derby in 1875 were African-American, and the African-American Oliver Lewis won the race riding Aristides. African-Americans won 15 of the first 28 runnings of the Kentucky Derby. For example, Isaac Burns Murphy, who was inducted into the inaugural class of racing’s Hall of Fame in 1955, is recognized as one of the greatest jockeys ever. He was the first jockey to win the Kentucky Derby three times (1884, 1890 and 1891). Born and raised in Lexington, Ky., his mother apprenticed him off to an owner of horses at age 14 because that was seen as the only path to a better life he had. Like many who have been attracted to racing for the thrill and the opportunity, he believed that the right training could earn him a good life as a jockey. It worked. He mastered the art of pacing, and became so graceful that one newspaper called him an “elegant specimen of manhood.” He managed to make between $15,000 and $20,000 a year (close to a million dollars today), and lived a comfortable upper-middle-class life in a home he bought in his native Lexington, Ky. Eventually, horse racing became more lucrative not only for the people owning and riding the horses, but for the spectators, too. Races became shorter, so there were more of them, meaning the number of betting pools increased. A system for betting on multiple horses was developed, so there were more exciting opportunities for spectators to make money. As jockeys who weren’t black saw African-American jockeys making a good living off of horse-racing, Murphy was an example of someone who became “a victim of his own success,” says Pellom McDaniels III, author of _The Prince of Jockeys: The Life of Isaac Burns Murphy_ and the Curator of African American Collections in the Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library at Emory University. In the 1890 season, Murphy was accused of being an alcoholic and drunk on the back of a horse. McDaniels says that, in his research, he discovered that Murphy was actually drugged. Many black jockeys were sabotaged, to the point where, by the early 20th century, they were becoming more of a rarity in the sport. Jimmy Winkfield was the last African-American jockey to win the Kentucky Derby, in 1902, and he ended up going to Europe and making a name for himself in Russia, France and Germany. Nowadays, McDaniels says, there’s another factor in play in determining who rides at the races: jockeys are usually people who have grown up in rural environments, so people of Latin-American and Caribbean heritage, who may have been more likely to grow up in the country around horses, have become today’s racetrack regulars. **Correction:** The original version of this article misstated Pellom McDaniels’s current position at Emory University. He is the Curator of African American Collections in the Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library, not a professor of African-American Studies. ## Transcript It's gonna be really tough to be female in this sport. It's a very intense sport, it's dangerous. I guess it's always just been like generally thought, it's like a guys' sport. [ MUSIC ] Good morning. You have to have a lot A lot of discipline and strength, a lot of things a lot of girls my age would never imagine having to do. I enjoy it. I like to work hard. The average rider starting out is 18, and so I'm 16, pretty young. My first professional race. On Sunday as an apprentice jockey. I don't wanna let anybody down. [ BLANK_AUDIO ] The whole goal of an apprentice rider is you wanna have as many wins as you can in one year. Where do we sign? Just down here [ LAUGH ] cuz they don't have a spot for it. My goal is to go to California or Kentucky and hopefully win graded stakes, and win something like the Kentucky Derby or Breeders Cup. Emilia's paperwork is We're all filled out, we're gonna it and good luck to you. Thank you. Congratulations. Thank you. Any time you leave, any time you come back you have that with you. But just give her a copy. Thank you George. Yeah. [ MUSIC ] Good luck, young lady. Be careful. Thank you. [ MUSIC ] We're official! [ MUSIC ] Aah, that's a relief. Thank God. She's been helping me for the last six months And I've been promising her the horse but we're just waiting for her licence and thing I know, she's in a horse tomorrow and it's her dream. Whatever she [ INAUDIBLE ] it doesn't matter. Like I told her I want her to be safe in their and maybe we get lucky . >> This is the horse for Sunday. Naddie's sash. Yeah, you're a movie star. [ MUSIC ] Horses are a thousand pounds or more. You have the risk of being stepped on, being completely run over by how many horses are in the race. And, you go forty five miles an hour So you're going at a high speed with an animal like ten times the weight of you. It's just something that was always in the back of our head. [ MUSIC ] People say like, you gave up your childhood and stuff like that. But honestly I think I had enough of high school, now I have like about four credits left that I need to finish online, but I'm still, I'm two years ahead of where I should be in school. [ MUSIC ] [ BLANK_AUDIO ] When I came here, I had to be on my own, cuz my dad and my mom worked. My mom's two hours away so she comes to see me when she can. [ BLANK_AUDIO ] Generally, she would dress up as a jockey and go to the track And I think everybody just thought it was a phase, kids dress up and she wasn't the only kid who ever dressed up as a jockey and went to the races. She's just followed her own thing and a lot of that I take no credit for. [ MUSIC ] [ BLANK_AUDIO ] Can you start riding today? Yeah. You said in two weeks! Cuz I thought it was going to be in two weeks. But it's early. And then it happened. It's early. [ BLANK_AUDIO ] You have to work with how your horse is feeling. The horse pulls against you, so you kind of balance Off their pull. If you let the horse know that they're in charge but you have control of them, it'll help you a lot. How's your [ UNKNOWN ] this morning? Good, I worked a bunch [ UNKNOWN ] was really nice work. Not a lot of people can say that they're able to do this and It's crazy. And I wish that if I was her age, that I had that mentality. Because I would be way further ahead. And I think she's gonna go far. And she's gonna show the world, just what girls can do in this horse industry. She's gonna kick some us. [ LAUGH ] [ BLANK_AUDIO ] I think [ INAUDIBLE ] jockeys, it will [ INAUDIBLE ] probably. Yeah, for sure. And everybody's telling me all like the horse suppose to win cuz she's the favorite so I'm pressured. [ BLANK_AUDIO ] [ MUSIC ] [ INAUDIBLE ] [ MUSIC ] Let's pray. Father, we do thank you and we praise you today, Lord, for your love, Father, that we would live a life of peace. Thank you, Lord, that it's going to be a safe day here at [ UNKNOWN ] Paradise, that people will indeed recognize your presence in this place. Amen. Praise the Lord. You all be safe. Have a blessed day. Okay. [ BLANK_AUDIO ] [ MUSIC ] [ SOUND ] [ MUSIC ] I've had some really really great mentors who have been there through the ups and the down and thought me so much. I think I put the most pressure on myself than any anybody buddy. So if we don't win I just want the horse to run her best. Just rush her and leave her alone. God bless you. [ MUSIC ] [ SOUND ] horses approaching starting Going in all set for the fifth. [ SOUND ] They are off and running. [ INAUDIBLE ] Miss Molly [ INAUDIBLE ] Now she's at the back and has a full length to make up and they go through the far turn Miss Molly three quarters of a length now a half. Come on baby come on. [ INAUDIBLE ] Outside Nattie Sass coming out on the rail then it's Undercover Queen in the lane still Miss Molly, Miss Molly fighting off Yes Mary, Natty Sash at the rail and Undercover Queen a furlong left to go. Come on baby come on. And Miss Molly is holding off Yes Marie for a moment, Yes Marie coming at Miss Molly then Undercover. On the outside of [ UNKNOWN ] Sass, yes Barry is gonna win, three way photo finish for second third and fourth. Undercover Queen outside Miss Molly and between horses and Natty Sass at the rail. [ APPLAUSE ] She came in third. No second she got second yay wahoo! [ LAUGH ] Thank you I should've worn a [ UNKNOWN ] I love you good job. Thank you. You didn't get beat by some long shot. I know I got beat by my trainer. [ LAUGH ] If I was gonna get beat at least it was by you. I said where are you where are you my gosh. I think I proved to all the trainers that I'm just gonna improve from here and that I'm capable of having an apprentice license. One hand right here. Another hand right here and you pull, you got the power? Not like this wrap pull. Yeah congratulations. Thank you. [ SOUND ] They are off [ INAUDIBLE ] From here I just wanna ride another race. Burt's Baby. Burts Baby in the lead still about three and a half and flying down the preservation the wire can't come fast enough for Emilia but it came and Burt's Baby will be the name she won't forget, that was her first career win. [ BLANK_AUDIO ] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4766955/kentucky-derby-jockeys-history/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4766955/kentucky-derby-jockeys-history/"},"headline":"An African-American Jockey Hasn't Won the Kentucky Derby for More Than a Century. 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