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It just occured to me the other day that there are very little or even no black jockey’s riding in Ireland or the UK at present. Even when watching racing in South Africa I noticed that there was very few, although all of the stalls handlers and race staff appeared to be black. I have noticed some black jockeys riding in the US but it just bafles me as to why there is none over here.
So why are there so few black jockey’s? Im talking about african or carribean origin not Arab or Asian. Black men and women tend to be the best athletes in the world in all sports but there are so few in racing. Its not as if they are all too big either look at Shaun Wright Phillips for example. Its not as if black people dont like racing either.
So what is the reason for the lack of black jockey’s over here? Is there an underlying racial prejudice in our age old sport that is never spoken of or highlighted in the media or is there a more logical reason. Or is it just a coincidence and simply the way it is!!
It really does puzzle me!!
I’ve grown up in the horsey set, and I know very few black people who ride, even fewer compete. Watch any of the classes at the big shows, Hickstead, Olympia, Morsailles, the irish GP series, EVERYONE is white.
As for reasons why, according to the internet, "Most Black Britons can be found in the large cities and metropolitan areas of the country." cities and horses tend not to mix terribly well, not least because you’re detached from most opportunities to compete, and meet other horsey people. Also it’s a damn hard to pick up if you come to it older than i’d say about 12, if not younger. I do a lot of teaching in my holidays to make ends meet and you’d be amazed how much quicker TINY kids, and we’re talking 2/3/4 year olds pick it up, and it takes adults an age to get the most basic of balance and the likes.
Mr Royston Ffrench Very Good stylish jockey retained for a number of years by Mark Johnson. Though cant think of any other.
Like me and a lot of my inner city residents both white and black
theres not much of an opportunity to see a horse never mind ride one so an educated guess thats the reason.Watch any of the classes at the big shows, Hickstead, Olympia, Morsailles, the irish GP series, EVERYONE is white.
Oliver Skeete is one black man to have plied his trade in this sphere to a decent level. Is he not still around in some capacity? Can’t say I’ve heard much of him recently.
gc
Adoptive father of two. The patron saint of lower-grade fare. A gently critical friend of point-to-pointing. Kindness is a political act.
Watch any of the classes at the big shows, Hickstead, Olympia, Morsailles, the irish GP series, EVERYONE is white.
Oliver Skeete is one black man to have plied his trade in this sphere to a decent level. Is he not still around in some capacity? Can’t say I’ve heard much of him recently.
gc
I wondered what Mr. Skeete was doing these days, so just had a quick look on Wikipedia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oliver_Skeete
Looks like he’s now earing a crust by driving a lorry.
Watch any of the classes at the big shows, Hickstead, Olympia, Morsailles, the irish GP series, EVERYONE is white.
Oliver Skeete is one black man to have plied his trade in this sphere to a decent level. Is he not still around in some capacity? Can’t say I’ve heard much of him recently.
gc
he quit after failing to qualify for sydney 2000 i thought?
Eduardo Pedroza who used to ride the globetrotting German star Paolini another to add to the list.
I don’t know if it’s physiology or something else, but black people just don’t seem to take to riding. If you notice, you won’t see any black swimmers either. I can understand them maybe not getting the chance to try riding, mostly being based in the cities, but they should have swimming pools available and it doesn’t seem to matter.
It may be there are a few out there who ride or swim, but they’re just not good enough to be at the top of the sports so you never hear of them.
They seem to excel in a few sports – athletics (at least the running events: not sure if I’ve seen any doing field stuff), football (rugby too?), cricket, but that seems to be about it.
http://www.minnpost.com/delmafrancis/20 … or_lessons
Interesting article about the first black swimming gold medallist. I think there are cultural reasons for the lack of representation in sports, ie who is in the UK mens netball team? Is there one? How many Jewish jockeys have there been?
As has been mentioned already Royston Ffrench and Sean Levey have shown that it isn’t a physical impossibility for black people to be good jockeys if they so wish.
As far as I’m aware Royston Ffrench and Sean Levey are the only current jockeys riding regularly in the uk. There is a guy Ricky Alleyne who wants to be a jump jockey who is due to ride in Amateur races during the summer. There have been a few in France – I know Adeline Gadras rides over obstacles at present – Ed Pedroza is one of the leading riders in Germany.
There are quite a few riders in South Africa, though not many make the big breakthough. Three have though, and Muzi Yeni and S’Manga Khumalo have ridden Grade 1 winners this year. The majority of black riders in the US/Canada move there from the caribbean. Patrick Husbands springs to mind. I was impressed with the ride current Bajan champion 18-years-old Jalon Sameuls gave a horse of Sir Michael Stoute’s at Windsor a week ago on a flying visit.
As a black briton who wanted to ride, i can say finance and perception could/can get in the way of ambition if you let it. If you have passion/desire, that shouldn’t deter. I have to praise the work of the Ebony Pony Club, which was set up to give inner city kids, [of all colours], the chance to take up riding. This is where Ricky Alleyne learnt to ride. More iniatives like this are needed.
One last observation, some of the work riders in South Africa have Muzi Yeni and S’Manga Khumalo as inspirations – some of these also cited Royston Ffrench. I wonder if racing is failing to get across the message of being an inclusive sport in the UK, because the number of black kids wanting to go to the racing school is depressingly low.
I don’t know if it’s physiology or something else, but black people just don’t seem to take to riding. If you notice, you won’t see any black swimmers either. I can understand them maybe not getting the chance to try riding, mostly being based in the cities, but they should have swimming pools available and it doesn’t seem to matter.
It may be there are a few out there who ride or swim, but they’re just not good enough to be at the top of the sports so you never hear of them.
They seem to excel in a few sports – athletics (at least the running events: not sure if I’ve seen any doing field stuff), football (rugby too?), cricket, but that seems to be about it.
Educate yourself:
http://www.bourbonlibrary.org/aahistory … hbreds.htm
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-a … ckeys.html
This book should be required reading for anyone interested in the history of race and/or racing in America.
http://www.amazon.com/Great-Black-Jocke … pd_sim_b_3African-American Isaac Murphy was the very first jockey elected into the Racing Hall of Fame. He is often considered to be the greatest American jockey of all time.
Willie Simms went to England in 1895 and introduced the short-stirrup forward seat position.He was the first American rider ever to win a race in England with an American horse, owner and trainer.
There are a few biographies of the great Jimmy Winkfield. I’ve only read
Wink
, which is excellent.
http://www.amazon.com/Wink-Incredible-J … 050&sr=1-4
http://www.amazon.com/Black-Maestro-Epi … pd_sim_b_2The 2010 American leading jockey by wins is Deshawn Parker.
http://www.tampabay.com/news/humaninter … ty/1154084The best jockey in Canada is Patrick Husbands, one of several Barbardian jockeys to find success at Woodbine.
http://www.woodbineentertainment.com/Wo … aspx?id=45Why are there no black jockeys in the UK? I’ll leave that question to those who know the social climate better than I do.
Eddie Pedroza has been German champion jockey for the last four years now and currently lies second in this years title chase, but I can tell that there’s a new kid on the block in Germany, and like Pedroza, he hails from Panama! I was at Mannheim races on Sunday, and Pedrozas trainer, Andreas Woehler sent a horse over there to be ridden by Fernando Guanti. I’ve never heard of this guy before, but my word he was impressive! Funninly enough, when he won, there was a bit of panic because no-one knew if he actually spoke German, so I was put on standby incase he only spoke English, however, even with a Spanish interpreter found, Guanti covered the interview in excellent German. There’s actually a couple of pictures of him in the Mannheim report on my website at http://www.anglogermanracing.com/news.php – apologies for the shameless plug, but just scroll down to the 8th and 9th photos, and you can see him. He moved over to Germany four years ago but he’s been mainly work riding in that time for the Woehler stable. However, he looked a really decent rider, and if given the chance, could turn out to be a bit of a star.
Interesting article about the first black swimming gold medallist. I think there are cultural reasons for the lack of representation in sports, ie who is in the UK mens netball team? Is there one?
How many Jewish jockeys have there been?
A whole lot, actually, just not in England.
From the surprisingly long and somewhat outdated bookJews in American Sports
:
Of course, there are no Jewish horses. Nevertheless, there have been quite a few Jews connected with the turf sport. Because horse racing is mainly a gambler’s game, one cannot write about it in the way one can describe a match between two baseball teams, or football teams, or boxers. Still, much is worth noting.
Two of the best trainers in the sport were Jews, and their names were nearly alike. One was Max Hirsch and the other was Hirsch Jacobs. Both men saddled more winners than anyone else, and many of the most famous horses in turf history were trained, coaxed and built up by these two men. In 1947, Stymie, which became one of the top money winners of all time, was originally bought by Hirsch Jacobs for $1,500, which is only an indication of what a smart horse expert he was.
Another oddity is that in 1936 the Kentucky Derby was, in effect, a Jewish "sweep." Bold Venture was the winner, owned by Morton Schwartz, trained by Max Hirsch and ridden by Ira Hanford. All the human beings involved in this horse racing victory were Jews. Sometimes we suspect that Bold Venture was Jewish that day, too!
There also have been a number of important, victorious Jewish jockeys. Willie Harmatz, who rode for twenty years, was inducted into the Jewish Sports Hall of Fame. Upon his induction, reporters talked with him about his career, in which he brought home some nineteen hundred winners. He reflected that, "I don’t know why there have been so few Jewish jockeys. In recent years I guess Walter Blum and I were the only successful ones." Blum won the George Woolf Award in 1964, an honor given to the rider who has reflected credit on the profession. Harmatz won the same award a few years earlier and had the exciting experience of riding the Preakness winner – Royal Orbit – in 1959. Other Jewish jockeys included Sammy and Joie Renick, Charley Rosengarten and Eddy Litzenberger.
The best Jewish jockey of them all was Walter Miller, a member of Jockey’s Hall of Fame and considered one of the best riders of all time. While Miller is now more or less forgotten, he has entered the record books of racing as a remarkable jockey. During one four-year period, he mounted more than a thousand winners, while most jockeys did not get half as many rides in that same four-year stretch. He worked the tracks in the early years of this century and in 1906 became the first jockey to ride more than three hundred winners in a given year. He hit a smashing mark of three hundred and eighty-eight winners. The next year he almost repeated that astonishing record with three hundred and thirty-four winners. A Jockey Hall of Fame official is quoted in the Encyclopedia of Jews in Sports as saying, "The incredible thing about Miller’s records is that they were accomplished in the days of six and seven race cards and abbreviated racing seasons."
Of course there have been many Jewish race horse owners but as they were themselves far from athletes, no space need be given to them, except to mention that the name of August Belmont is a major name in racing annals. He was the first president of the American Jockey Club, founded various racing parks and Belmont Park and the Belmont Stakes are named after him. A banker, Belmont had little to do with the Jewish community in which he lived.
Barbara Jo Rubin (first female jockey to win a race in America) is another. Current Jewish jockeys include David Cohen (winner of the 2006 Dubai Golden Shaheen) and Maylan Studart.
I think there are cultural reasons for the lack of representation in sports, ie who is in the UK mens netball team? Is there one? How many Jewish jockeys have there been?
Erm, I’d be happy to put a substantial sum of cash on a certain Mr Waley-Cohen being Jewish, ditto the Goldsteins.
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