Before the Roses: The Black Jockeys Who Built the Kentucky Derby

Before there were million-dollar purses, endless television replays and a national holiday built around the Kentucky Derby, there was a young Black jockey named Oliver Lewis. In 1875, he rode Aristides across the finish line in the very first Derby. Aristides was trained by Ansel Williamson, another Black horseman whose work helped establish the race that would become Louisville's signature sporting event.

That first win was not a historical exception. Black jockeys won 15 of the first 28 Kentucky Derbies, according to the National Museum of Racing's educational material and other racing histories. The sport was built in no small part by riders, grooms and trainers whose knowledge of horses long predated the race's famous roses.

The first Derby was not the sport we know today

The inaugural race on May 17, 1875, drew 15 competitors. Thirteen of their jockeys were Black, according to the Kentucky Derby's historical materials. Lewis, a teenager, delivered the winning ride on Aristides, guided by trainer Williamson, who had been enslaved earlier in his life. Their victory placed Black expertise at the center of a tradition that would later become a global brand.

A jockey must read pace, space and the horse beneath them in real time. A trainer has to build the animal's conditioning and prepare it for a particular distance. Those skills were integral to the Derby's early identity, yet the public story of the race often favors owners, trophies and spectators over the people who did the work.

Isaac Murphy was a superstar, not a footnote

Isaac Burns Murphy helped define the standard for excellence. The National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame credits him with Derby wins on Buchanan in 1884, Riley in 1890 and Kingman in 1891. He was the first jockey to win the Derby three times and the first to win back-to-back editions. His accomplishments made him a major sporting celebrity during the late nineteenth century.

The museum's biography also notes that historical records disagree about some of Murphy's lifetime win totals. That uncertainty is an important reminder: even in a sport built around results, surviving records are not always complete. The three Derby victories, however, are firmly documented.

Murphy was more than a remarkable athlete. He represented an era in which Black horsemen could command national attention and substantial earnings while also confronting a society that denied Black Americans equal treatment. Individual success never guaranteed equal access for those who followed.

From dominance to exclusion

Jimmy Winkfield won the Kentucky Derby in 1901 and 1902. The Kentucky Derby Museum identifies him as the most recent Black jockey to win the event. His career eventually took him to Russia and France, where he continued racing after his opportunities in the United States narrowed. His international success demonstrates how much ability remained, even as access at home deteriorated.

The change was not simply that a new generation of riders happened to arrive. Racism, segregation and the power of white competitors and racing institutions pushed Black jockeys out of the profession's most prominent spaces. The Kentucky Derby Museum's Black Heritage in Racing program places that history alongside the continuing contributions of Black horsemen to the sport.

Winkfield's story is especially telling. The museum recounts that when he returned to Louisville decades later, he faced discrimination at a pre-Derby event despite his two victories. An athlete who had helped build the race's legend could still be treated as unwelcome at a celebration of that very history.

Whose history gets celebrated?

There is no need to invent a flawless golden age. Black riders worked in a racially unequal country throughout their period of dominance. But the records demonstrate who was already at the highest level of the sport and how profoundly the field changed as segregation hardened.

The Kentucky Derby Museum's Black Heritage in Racing exhibit and tour now place these riders and trainers back in the conversation. That work matters because remembering Oliver Lewis, Ansel Williamson, Isaac Murphy and Jimmy Winkfield changes the way the Derby is introduced. The Black presence is not an added chapter. It is part of the beginning.

The next time the horses enter the gate at Churchill Downs, the history under their hooves will be older and more complicated than the broadcast graphics. The story begins with Black horsemen who helped make the Kentucky Derby possible.