African American Contributions To Horse Racing Recognized Ahead Of Kentucky Derby 147

On Monday, Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear signed a proclamation naming April 25 – May 1 Ed Brown Society Week in the commonwealth, recognizing African Americans' contributions to horse racing ahead of the 147th running of the Kentucky Derby.

“In the 1800s and early 1900s, the majority of jockeys were African Americans. But, despite their centuries of contributions, after World War I, African Americans were pushed out of the sport,” said Gov. Beshear. “I am proud to recognize the Ed Brown Society, an organization helping right this wrong by providing mentorship to the next generation of African American Kentuckians in the horseracing industry.”

The Ed Brown Society is named after Edward D. Brown, who was born into slavery in Lexington in 1850, but through his tenacity and love of the sport developed into one of the most accomplished African American horsemen in the history of Thoroughbred racing.

Brown was sold at age seven to a proprietor of the horse farm Woodburn Stud in Woodford County. Brown had a small boyhood stature, but gained a vast knowledge of horses, which afforded him the opportunity to become a jockey in his early teens.

At 14, Brown won his first race on a horse named Asteroid. A year later, Brown was emancipated. He continued to work at Woodburn Stud until the proprietor's death in 1867. Afterwards, Brown built his career as a top jockey and trainer until he saved enough money to establish his own racing stable, where he owned and trained a number of stakes winners.

Brown's most distinguished career highlights include two standout victories: He rode Kingfisher to win the fourth running of the Belmont Stakes in 1870, and led Baden-Baden as a trainer in 1877 to win the third running of the Kentucky Derby.

Brown's important role in thoroughbred racing was confirmed with his 1984 induction into the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame.

The Ed Brown Society was recently established to celebrate the rich history of African Americans in the equine industry as well as to create opportunities for young African American Kentuckians.

“At the Ed Brown Society, in our past, we want to acknowledge and educate about the wonderful history of African Americans in horse racing in our great state,” said Ray Daniels, chief executive officer of Equity Solutions Group and president of the Ed Brown Society. “In the present day, we want to highlight the great jobs and opportunities in the equine industry. We've been successful in guiding 30 African Americans into horse ownership in the past few years. And the future for us is to educate young students to make these opportunities in the industry a reality.”

The society aims to increase diversity in thoroughbred racing and its support professions, helping more people pursue a career they are passionate about, and at the same time, helping the equine industry reach its full potential. For example, as of 2018, African Americans comprised 13.4% of the U.S. population, but made up only 1.7% of veterinary employment, a statistic the society wants to help improve.

Through partnerships with industry stakeholders and educational institutions, the Ed Brown Society has the opportunity to ensure the horseracing industry is well-positioned culturally and economically to create a stronger, more diverse pipeline of talent for the future.

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Derby History: Ansel Williamson, The Former Slave Who Trained The First Kentucky Derby Winner

Our readers here at the Paulick Report seem to love a good lookback at horse racing history. In considering the best subjects for our 2020 Triple Crown coverage, this seemed like a good time to make note of the crucial role Black horsemen have played in the early days of our sport, and in this series of races. Many of the sport's most revered heroes around the turn of the 20th century were ridden, cared for, trained, and sometimes owned by Black horsemen whose equine expertise sometimes stretched back generations. While some, like jockeys Jimmy Winkfield and Isaac Murphy, have been the subjects of well-researched biographies in recent years, others may be less known to racing fans. It is clear that their contributions played an essential role in the lives of horses that became influential in American Thoroughbred history and bloodlines.

Today, the Paulick Report continues our series on Black horsemen of Triple Crown racing history which we started before the Belmont Stakes with a profile on Edward Dudley Brown. If you missed it, you can access that piece here.

In a normal Kentucky Derby year, one of the most popular places for that perfect pre-race selfie is the Aristides statue which overlooks the paddock at Churchill Downs. Aristides is well-known in racing circles as the winner of the first Derby in 1875, but beyond this point of trivial pursuit many people don't know much about him – including the role Black horsemen played in getting him to the post that day.

Of the 15 horses who went to the post that first Derby Day, 13 did so with Black jockeys, including the eventual winner. Aristides had Oliver Lewis aboard, who was legged up by a former slave named Ansel Williamson.

Williamson was born an enslaved person in Virginia around 1810. The earliest accounts of his career as a trainer don't appear until the 1850s, by which time he was in Alabama, where he was enslaved as a trainer by T.G. Goldsby. It's likely his experience with horses started well before age 40. Williamson's specialty during this time was training horses for three-mile heats, including the nationally-known runner called Brown Dick.

Williamson was then sold to A. Keene Richards, for whom he trained Australian and Glycera. Richards, who was based in Kentucky, would become known as an influential breeder. Interestingly, Richards was perhaps best-known for importing a number of Arabian horses into the United States to reinvigorate what he saw as an inferior, weakened Thoroughbred which had strayed too far from its roots. The Thoroughbred of the time, in Richards' view, lacked durability and stamina of days past (sound familiar?). Richards' view of stamina was a minimum of a four-mile contest, which he judged the English Thoroughbred could not withstand without injury. The horses resulting from Richards' breeding experiment would unfortunately become spoils of the Civil War, which broke out just after he imported and bred Arabian stallions to Thoroughbred mares.

By now, having developed a reputation for his horsemanship skills, Williamson was sold in 1864 to Robert Alexander, owner of Woodburn Farm. Alexander seems to have had a fondness for Williamson before this, naming a colt Ansel after him in 1856. While at Woodburn, Williamson trained Asteroid, who was one of the most successful racehorses of his day, undefeated in 12 starts and earner of $9,700 by the time of his retirement.

Of course, Williamson made the move to Woodburn in the thick of the Civil War, when both the Confederate and Union armies were constantly in search of horses. According to Katherine Mooney's 'Race Horse Men,' Southern Thoroughbred owners were particularly nervous throughout this period, as horses were generally perceived as symbols of the Confederacy, making them attractive trophies for Union forces.

Writings from the period recall one nighttime raid on Woodburn by Confederate guerrilla Bill Quantrill, who rode with his men to the door and demanded horses. It seemed Quantrill was familiar with racing and with Woodburn, because he began requesting specific animals. Williamson negotiated with Quantrill in the dark and when the soldier requested Asteroid, quick-thinking Williamson was able to pull a young horse from a nearby stall who, under the cover of night, looked passable for Asteroid. Although Quantrill made off with 15 of Alexander's runners, he didn't get the stable's biggest star.

What Williamson may have felt in those moments, or indeed his feelings on any part of his career, is mostly absent from available historical accounts, which was true for many of the period's Black horsemen. There are small glimpses into the personalities of some, with jockeys more commonly being described in detail than trainers. In fact, their being noted at all was offensive to some turf devotees after their emancipation.

An artist's depiction of Aristides

“Freedom was a daily series of tiny revolutions,” Mooney wrote in 'Race Horse Men.' “The world had fundamentally changed, as the Spirit of the Times impatiently reminded its readers, after the magazine received a few letters from racing enthusiasts uncomfortable with Black competitors. Their scruples were ridiculous, the Spirit scoffed. 'Does any man with a pennyweight of brains think the less of Charles Littlefield or Gilpatrick because they ride against Abe or Albert or Alexander's Dick?' Between the rails of the racetrack, at least, Black men were to be the acknowledged equals of white ones.”

After the Civil War, this designation came in one small way to Williamson, who took his last name upon being granted his freedom. Many Black jockeys and trainers, like those noted in the quote from the Spirit of the Times, were identified only by their first name, but the Spirit printed Williamson's full name along with his horse's entries, just as it did for white trainers.

One account recalls a Spirit reporter rushing over to Abe Hawkins, the most famous of the very first well-known Black jockeys, to shake his hand in the crowd at the Jersey Derby. It seemed that by the end of the war, those who knew horses respected the immense talent of Black horsemen, even if they couldn't see them as equal people.

Williamson worked for Alexander after emancipation, and later went to train for H.P. McGrath of McGranthiana Farm. Williamson wasn't the only former Alexander employee who ended up at McGranthiana – Edward Dudley Brown, eventual trainer of Ben Brush and Plaudit, also worked there. It was common then, as it is now, for trainers and riders to mentor each other, and it seems Williamson nurtured Brown's early career as a rider. Brown began as a jockey before he was a trainer, and presumably his association with Williamson continued to benefit him when he transitioned to training. Brown mentored William Walker, the Black jockey who rode Baden Baden to victory in the Derby when he was still a teenager.

“In freedom, older men could pass on their skills to younger ones and hope to see privilege and experience accrue increasing rewards over the generations,” wrote Mooney. “Free men could afford to think of themselves as friends, colleagues, and mentors, as members of a group governed by more than individual interest.

“Williamson and others with insider knowledge also tried to take care of Black horsemen outside their immediate circle. Black men laid their money down at the betting windows with assurance, because they had inside information that had come from African American trainers and jockeys.”

When Williamson brought Aristides to the post at Churchill (then called the Louisville Jockey Club), the horse was not expected to win. Aristides had been entered as a pacesetter for McGrath's other runner, Chesapeake. He was small, and he was a front-runner in what was then a 1 ½-mile race.

Lewis took Aristides to the lead as he'd been instructed by McGrath, maintaining good position and a little surprised that after half a mile he'd had no challengers. Chesapeake, who had broken poorly, was no threat. Legend has it Lewis could be seen looking around, somehow spotting McGrath in a crowd reported to number 10,000, and hearing McGrath call out “Go on!” Lewis slipped the reins and on Aristides went, down the stretch and into history.

Williamson's name appears in relatively few modern books on Derby history outside of a passing mention in a table of past winners. In one, it's misspelled as Ansel Williams in both the index and his single mention in the entirety of the main text – an insult if ever there was one. Most racing historians would say however that his legacy wasn't really Aristides so much as the superstar Asteroid, who made his name known far and wide, to people he'd never met. His mark on the sport also includes Tom Bowling, Merrill, Virgil, Aaron Pennington, Susan Ann and yes, — Chesapeake. As a trainer, he won the Belmont, Travers, Jerome, Phoenix, and the Withers.

Williamson was inducted into the National Museum of Racing Hall of Fame in 1998.

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Belmont History: Edward Brown Went From Slave To Jockey To Trainer To Owner In A Lifetime

Our readers here at the Paulick Report seem to love a good lookback at horse racing history. In considering the best subjects for our 2020 Triple Crown coverage, this seemed like a good time to make note of the crucial role black horsemen have played in the early days of our sport, and in this series of races. Many of the sport's most revered heroes around the turn of the 20th century were ridden, cared for, trained, and sometimes owned by black horsemen whose equine expertise sometimes stretched back generations. While some, like jockeys Jimmy Winkfield and Isaac Murphy, have been the subjects of well-researched biographies in recent years, others may be less known to racing fans. It is clear that their contributions played an essential role in the lives of horses that became influential in American Thoroughbred history and bloodlines.

Ahead of each of this year's Triple Crown races, we plan to release a profile on a black horseman from racing history whose story may be unfamiliar to you.

Edward Dudley Brown was a man of many names in his 56 years, and also stood behind many of the biggest names in horse racing following the Civil War.

Brown began his life as a slave, born in 1850 in Fayette County, Ky., and was sold at the age of seven along with his cousin to Robert A. Alexander of Woodburn Stud in neighboring Woodford County. The details on the early part of Brown's life are scant, other than he demonstrated an interest in fast horses not long after his arrival to Woodburn and learned to ride, probably at around the time political tensions in the United States were reaching a boiling point.

Brown's interest in racehorses was probably not considered out of place for a young slave at the time. Horse racing had evolved in this country as a sporting outlet for wealthy landowners. Horses were a common part of daily life in the 1700s and 1800s of course, so it was natural that one farmer should suggest to another that he had the fastest horse in either of their barns. Eventually, the most enthusiastic race fans imported English Thoroughbreds and began breeding horses specifically to race.

Since those who could afford 'blooded' horses were often gentlemen farmers, they typically knew how to ride and knew the basics of how a barn should run, but that didn't mean they wanted to do the work themselves. Prior to the Civil War, this meant the task of not just grooming but also riding and training often fell to slaves.

In her book 'Race Horse Men,' writer Katherine Mooney notes that when African slaves were brought to this country, they brought with them generational knowledge of horses. North Africans and Middle Easterners brought horses and horsemen to West Africa, and the region became known for its equestrianism. For some Africans brought to the colonies in slavery, horses may have been a part of their background since the Mali Empire (which existed from the early 1200s to mid-1600s).

This left those slaves in charge of racing barns in a tricky position – they were respected for their superior expertise, but still classified as inferior beings behind whites. They had some physical freedom to travel and to manage other slaves underneath them, but were by no means free. They helped their owners win purse money and wagers placed alongside the race route, but were not paid themselves. They were heralded for their skills in the saddle, but could be (and were) threatened with lynching if they were judged not to have put in their best effort.

Mooney writes that white horsemen grew to rely on the black horsemen who ran their barns, working closely alongside them, developing a strangely dichotomous relationship.

“Examining the confined world of the track, we can unpick those knots and see that white turfmen were often strikingly sincere in the ties they professed with black horsemen, with these particular privileged slaves,” she writes. “But as clear as their sincerity is their complete inability to see black horsemen as full human beings. They recognized these black men as competent professionals and often as congenial companions. But they only saw black horsemen in relation to themselves; they could hardly imagine them with lives and feelings in which white interests played no part. This view of human beings as useful instruments was smotheringly all-encompassing, far deeper than any individual affection or sentimentality, malice or hypocrisy.”

It was into this strange dynamic that Brown rose to power, or as much power as he was allowed by the color of his skin.

It quickly became clear that he was a skilled rider, and also talented as a foot racer. Brown would sometimes gallop a horse named Brown Dick, who was best known for setting a record in 1856 for three-mile heats. Legend has it that Brown was so quick on two feet that people compared him to the well-known Thoroughbred and began calling him by the same name. The nickname stuck, so much so that at his death, a number of industry publications referred to him as “Brown Dick” – which had to be puzzling for fans of the equine Brown Dick.

It seems to have been tradition in those days to refer to slaves by their first names only, making it somewhat challenging for researchers to trace an enslaved jockey's career. Further confusing the matter, Brown was often referred to simply as “Dick,” rather than “Ed” or “Edward.” Slaves were sometimes specified by their owner's name, so he occasionally appears in written record as “Alexander's Dick” and we are left to assume Robert A. Alexander had no other riders by the same first name. Regardless, Brown quickly caught Alexander's attention and was assigned to ride his first race aboard Woodburn's Asteroid, one of the best sons of the great Lexington, when Brown was just 14. The pair won races in St. Louis and a $750 stakes at Woodlawn in Louisville, and a couple of walkover heats.

It was not long after that first race the Thirteenth Amendment was passed, releasing Brown and thousands of others into a society that had largely not contemplated a place for them. Brown did have a sense for his place in the world thanks to racing, and continued working for Alexander, riding Asteroid and Maiden (dam of Hall of Famer Parole) and others until Alexander's death in 1867. Daniel Swigert, longtime farm manager at Woodburn, would leave two years later to launch Stockwood Stud, and Brown followed him. (Swigert would eventually be the great-grandfather of Spendthrift's Leslie Combs II and owned Elmendorf Farm, the precursor to Spendthrift.)

An 1864 painting by Edward Troye depicts Asteroid with his trainer Ansel Williamson (R), unidentified groom, and his jockey Edward Brown (L, kneeling).

Riding for Stockwood, Brown piloted stakes winners Virgil, Edinburgh, Blind Tom, and others. He entered the Triple Crown history books for the first time aboard Kingfisher, who he rode to victory in the 1870 Belmont Stakes, then held at 1 5/8 miles at Jerome Park.

Now in his twenties, Brown became too heavy to be a flat jockey and rode steeplechasers with some success for a couple of years before becoming a trainer for Swigert. His first success was with stakes winner King Alfonso (who would go on to sire winners of the Kentucky Derby, Preakness and Belmont), followed by Bombay and Baden-Baden.

Swigert was in the habit of selling horses at the end of their juvenile seasons if they showed some promise on the racetrack, which often took the best horses out of Brown's barn before their strengths were fully realized. This was the case with Spendthrift, who Swigert sold for $15,000 as a 2-year-old before he won the 1879 Belmont and became the great-grandsire of Man o' War. Hindoo was also sold off by Swigert after showing success at two, and went on to win the Kentucky Derby.

In the case of Baden-Baden though, Brown got to have at least some of the glory. He saddled the son of Australian (GB) in the third Kentucky Derby, where he prevailed by two lengths. Soon after the race, Swigert sold Baden-Baden to William Astor for $12,000.

Brown eventually moved on to work for Col. Milton Young (who at one time kept his racehorses at McGranthiana, later renamed Maine Chance), bringing the Young stable to the fifth-leading owner in the country in 1881. He would also condition horses for R.C. Pate, Col. James E. Pepper, and W.S. Barnes (the latter two often racing in partnership as Melbourne Stable). He nearly won the Derby again in 1886, as trainer of Blue Wing but was edged out a nose by Ben Ali.

All the while, Brown was putting his money away. He was described, in the few news clippings which bothered to describe him, as a quiet person not given to gambling or other habits that necessitated big spending. He was happy to give a tip to friends and reporters when he felt good about one of his horses, but seemed uninterested in risk himself.

“You see one side of Brown Dick's character when questions of fact are disputed before the judges and men accept his word as weightier evidence than the affidavits of many men,” wrote the Louisville Courier-Journal. “Another side you see when a party of ladies and children visit the stables. Brown Dick is never happier than when his hat is doffed, he is leading them from stall to stall and answering their absurd questions, with gentleman courtliness worthy of a wigged and ruffled cavalier.”

Often painted as a somewhat hunched man, slowed by arthritis, often sporting a trademark blue and white coat flapping in the breeze by the rail, Brown was already known as a fixture on the racetracks in Central Kentucky. When he had saved up enough money, Brown made the transition that churns the stomach of any trainer – he decided to buy and train his own stock.

Brown zeroed in on Swigert's strategy of buying stock and selling them just as their careers were heating up. He paid $4,500 for Plaudit as a yearling and would sell him to John E. Madden for $6,500 after the horse built up a juvenile resume. Plaudit would become a Kentucky Derby winner and key stallion for Hamburg Place. Brown's greatest success however, was a yearling he picked out at the Runnymede Farm yearling sale in 1894 named Ben Brush.

Brown went in on the $1,200 yearling with trainer Eugene Leigh, as the two evidently agreed this made more sense than bidding against each other. Strangely, little seems to have been written about the partnership, which was somewhat unconventional for the time since Leigh was white.

By all accounts, Brown lost his heart to Ben Brush. One turfwriter depicts him outside his training barn one afternoon, carefully overseeing the horse's grazing with a combination of fondness and nerves familiar to any trainer who knows they have something special.

“He's my kind of horse,” Brown told the Louisville Courier-Journal. “I like these steady-headed, sensible colts. You know I don't bet, but don't forget little Ben when he starts. He's one of the best I ever handled.”

Brown and Leigh turned down several cash offers for Ben Brush but eventually yielded to a sum reported between $12,000 and $18,000 (between $310,000 and $466,000 today) after his first five starts as a juvenile. Ben Brush would also win the Kentucky Derby but really left his mark as a sire – he was leading sire of 1909 and is still prevalent in the far reaches of many modern champions' pedigrees.

At the turn of the century, Brown began struggling with tuberculosis and rheumatism. He was thought to have saved some $100,000 from his career on the racetrack, making him one of the wealthier black Americans of his time according to some newspaper reports. Brown died in 1906 at a fellow trainer's home in Louisville. Obituaries describe him as struggling with his health for several of his last years and noted that he was penniless at the time of his death, though it's unclear what happened to his fortune. A fund was started on the backstretch to help pay for his funeral, and at least one of his biggest competitors – a white owner named Ed Corrigan – was one the first contributors.

Brown was inducted into the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame in 1984. In 1999, a plaque was placed in Midway, Ky., where Brown was buried, to commemorate his accomplishments. Then-Gov. Brereton Jones was on hand for the dedication, which was covered by the Lexington Herald-Leader.

“Jones said that the racing industry didn't feel Brown's effect until years later, but that his voice is heard today,” wrote Travis Mayo. “'He speaks very loudly and clearly that this is the Thoroughbred capitol of the world and that anybody who is willing to work can be a success,' Jones said. 'Because if a black man in the midst of slavery can succeed at it, surely the rest of us as free people, who are inhibited only by our own lack of vision or lack of fortitude, can succeed.'”

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