Morgan-with her sharp comprehension of history and a penchant for literary gambles of her own–sparked the genesis of a brilliant, winding epic novel of a racially and economically fraught America: The Sport of Kings. That a former-slave-turned-Hall-of-Famer trained Aristides–whose statue now stands at Churchill Downs–and an African-American jockey the size of a young girl rode the pounding horse to victory, hints at the intrigue, breathtaking chance, and monumental toil involved in the sport of horse racing. McGrath, of the famed green-and-orange silks, who’d been born dirt-poor but, after winning $105,000 in a single night in a New York gambling house, started a Thoroughbred farm that went on to become one of the most famous of its time. Purchased by a wealthy horse breeder, he learned the art and science of groomsmanship, and was eventually hired by J.P. In fact, black jockeys would dominate the sport in the south for another thirty years, winning 15 of the first 28 Derbies.Īristides’ trainer, Ansel Williamson, had been born a slave in rural Virginia. Thirteen of the fifteen jockeys surrounding him as they thundered down the home stretch were also African-American. McGrath, a diminutive, tough, whip-thin African-American jockey named Oliver Lewis, weighing little more than a hundred pounds, careened to the first Kentucky Derby victory on a chestnut Thoroughbred with a white blaze and two white socks named Aristides. On May 17, 1875, under blue skies and wearing the flapping green-and-orange silks of his legendary employer J.P.
0 kommentar(er)
