|
The Remarkable Ride of Jimmy Winkfield
Remembering the Last Black Winner of the Kentucky Derby
 Listen to Howard Berkes' profile of jockey Jimmy Winkfield.
May 4, 2002 -- At Churchill Downs in Louisville, Ky., more than 100,000 people are expected for today's 128th running of the Kentucky Derby. Among them will be the daughter and grandchildren of the late Jimmy Winkfield, a jockey who won the race twice -- a century ago. He's the last African American to win the Derby. Winkfield closed out an era in which black jockeys dominated the event. For Weekend Edition Saturday, NPR's Howard Berkes reports.
In the first Kentucky Derby, in 1875, 13 of the 15 riders were African Americans. So was the winning jockey, Oliver Lewis. Over the first 28 years the Derby was run, 15 of the winning riders were African American, says documentarian Steve Crump. "It would be nothing different than looking at an NFL field or an NBA court today, where so many of the participants were African American," says Crump, producer of Forgotten at the Finish Line, a video documentary about black jockeys.
The legacy has its roots in slavery, Crump says, when plantation owners left the care, training and racing of horses to slaves. "You had jockeys who were riding for their freedom on many of the southern plantations," he says. The early stars of the sport were "former slaves who were making a lot of money and had a greater lifestyle than some of their white counterparts at the time. "
Jimmy Winkfield went from being the the youngest of 17 in a family of sharecroppers, to racing for $8 a month -- and eventually, $1,000 a race. He won back-to-back Kentucky Derbies at the turn of the century. But then Winkfield lost his third Derby attempt, and racing itself faltered, beset by anti-gambling movements and financial hard times. Edward Hotaling, author of the book The Great Black Jockeys, says Winkfield found himself in "a sport that was under tremendous economic pressure -- and he was under tremendous racial pressure at the same time, as were the other black jockeys." Some white jockeys resented the choice mounts and big money earned by successful black riders. Races became combative; there was even a riot between black and white jockeys in Chicago.
Blacklisted after he broke a contract with one horse owner by riding for another, Winkfield accepted an offer to race in Russia, where he became a big star again. Says Hotaling: "He was living an incredible life, living in the National Hotel in Moscow, having caviar for breakfast" and making more money than any American athlete back home. But by 1917 as the Bolsheviks and the Communists rose to power, racing suffered from its association with wealth and aristocracy. So Winkfield led some 200 jockeys, trainers and owners overland to Poland -- a journey the group survived by eating their horses on the way.
Winkfield settled in France, married a Russian baroness, and returned to horse racing as a jockey, trainer and owner. He again found success -- until the Nazis invaded, and commandeered his stables for their own horses. to the United States. "By that time black jockeys had been totally forced out of the sport," Hotaling says -- even as they achieved success and fame in Europe. In 1953, Winkfield returned to France and raising horses.
In 1961, 60 years after he first rode to Derby victory, Jimmy Winkfield returned to Louisville for the race -- and still found recognition and respect elusive. Though he had been invited to a pre-Derby dinner at Louisville's luxurious Brown Hotel, "it was still segregated and so the doorman wouldn't let us in," recalls Winkfield's daughter, Liliane Casey. Winkfield eventually was admitted, though at the dinner other guests snubbed him, Casey recalls. Then came the next day, at the race grounds. "We were given some seats... but nothing as far as recognition of his presence was done," she remembers.
With Liliane Casey in the stands at Churchill Downs today will be one of Winkfield's grandchildren, a veterinarian who specializes in horses. This time, Winkfield and his family will be formally recognized at a post-race reception for the Derby winner. Winkfield's story also will be featured in the Kentucky Derby museum next year. And Winkfield's supporters are pushing his admission to the Thoroughbred Hall of Fame, so he can join two other African-American jockeys already honored there.
Other Resources
 Watch a video clip about Jimmy Winkfield's 1961 return to the Kentucky Derby, from the documentary Forgotten at the Finish Line, courtesy of Steve Crump and WTVI.
Visit the Kentucky Derby Web page devoted to the history of African-Americans in the Derby, including jockeys, trainers and owners.
|
