![]() ![]() ![]() 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. ![]()
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