Jimmy winkfield biography

Jockey

Won Back-to-Back Derby Races

Found Success in Europe

Settled in France Late in Life

Sources

The sport of horse racing in the southern United States grew from the region’s plantations and farms, and the rider of a prestigious racehorse in the 1800s was often a slave or servant of the horse’s owner.

For several decades after the Civil War, African-American jockeys dominated horse racing, but they were forced out when the sport outgrew its agrarian roots and began to emerge as a focal point for big-money gambling. One of the greatest of these African-American jockeys was Jimmy Winkfield, the last black jockey to win the Kentucky Derby.

Winkfield notched impressive accomplishments on American racetracks—and his international career, which followed his Derby victory, would furnish ideal material for a film screenplay or novel.

Won Back-to-Back Derby Races

Born on April 12, 1882, in Chilesburg near Lexington, Kentucky, Jimm