The Day Chick Lang and Cab Calloway Integrated the Turf Club at Hialeah

Racial segregation is one of the dark chapters in American history. Until the 1950s and 60s, Blacks had limited access to housing, facilities, schools, transportation and other opportunities. While we have plenty of racial problems today, it's almost hard to believe that there was a systematic separation of people in daily life. To right this terrible wrong, millions of Americans began to protest in the 50s and the situation began to change. The Supreme Court ruled that school segregation was unconstitutional, Rosa Parks declined to sit in the back of the bus and highly visible demonstrations began in earnest, led by leaders such as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

While there was a public outpouring of opposition to segregation, it took thousands and thousands of simple, unpublicized acts to dismantle this institution which had remained in society since the Jim Crow laws of the 1800s. Horse racing was no different than the rest of society, especially in the South. So, in recognition of Black History Month, here's a little-known story.

Let's start with some background. Most people in horse racing recognize Charles John “Chick” Lang as Mr. Preakness. Through hard work and determination, Lang took the Preakness from a weak sister to the Kentucky Derby and Belmont to the “Middle Jewel” of the Triple Crown. During his decades-long stint with Pimlico, he set the Preakness on course to become one of America's great races. It is annually the top sporting event for Maryland and the city of Baltimore, with more than 100,000 fans in attendance and millions watching it on television.

As a former hotwalker, groom and jockey's agent, Lang was a true racetracker. He never forgot the importance of each individual who played a role in Thoroughbred racing. Lang believed the backstretch worker deserved the same amount of respect as the wealthy owner. He was a tireless advocate for the rights of the less fortunate.

Early in Lang's horse racing career, he was the jockey agent for Hall of Famer Bill Hartack. From 1954 to early 1960, Lang and Hartack had a great run. Lang was representing a jockey who was considered one of the most successful and highest-paid professional athletes in the world. In 1958, Hartack was on the cover of Time Magazine. From 1953 to 1957, Hartack averaged 355 wins a year. During that run he had tremendous success at Hialeah, which offered the greatest racing in America at that time of the year. Hartack, who would go on to win five Kentucky Derbies, was the most recognizable athlete in Thoroughbred racing.

Cab Calloway and Chick Lang | Courtesy Lang Family

The second character in the story is Cab Calloway, the Black entertainer who was a singer, dancer, bandleader and actor. His best-known song today is Minnie the Moocher (Hi-De-Ho!). He recorded one of the first music videos (and maybe the best). Calloway loved horse racing. Whenever possible, he would visit his local racetrack. Of course, when he went to Hialeah, he always looked up Lang, who marked his program with plenty of winners delivered by his jockey, Hartack. On one crowded day, Calloway mentioned that his normal seats were already taken and asked if Lang could help. While in the midst of closing entries, Lang gave Calloway his Turf Club pin without hesitation. He directed him to go see the maitre d' and have him seated at Lang's table.

A few minutes later, a dejected Calloway returned and told Lang that they wouldn't let him in the Turf Club because he was a Negro. The Turf Club was for whites only. Those who knew Lang and his famous jockey can guess what happened next. Lang went to a nearby phone and called the track manager, and there was a one-sided conversation that followed.

“If Cab Calloway is not good enough to sit in the Turf Club at this track, then my jock will never ride here again, starting today!”

Calloway returned to the Turf Club, got his table and the color barrier was broken at Hialeah.

Those who knew Lang understood he was a man of principle. There was no gray area in a matter like this. He also knew where his jockey stood on this issue. Hartack had numerous Black friends, many of them entertainers. Throughout his career, Hartack never wavered in important principles. I am sure Lang informed him of the incident that night after the races, and I am confident Hartack affirmed the importance of his actions.

Lang went to work as a racing official at Pimlico in 1960. He never wavered in his distaste for segregation. No flip-flopping on important issues. It was either right or wrong, no matter what personal consequences one might face. For example, in his first year at Pimlico, he did something that was not in his job description or within his level of authority. When he came upon the “White” and “Colored” signs on the drinking fountains at Pimlico, he took them down and they never came back.

Lang and Calloway showed us all on that day–at the races at Hialeah in the 1950s–that change is accomplished with courage and commitment, one step at a time.

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Record-Setting Yaupon Returns To Action In Sunday’s Lite The Fuse Stakes At Pimlico

Bill and Corinne Heiligbrodt's Yaupon, record-setting winner of the Chick Lang (G3) last fall, returns to Maryland looking to recapture his winning form in Sunday's $100,000 Lite the Fuse at Pimlico Race Course.

The six-furlong Lite the Fuse for 3-year-olds and up, named for the two-time Carter (G1) and Frank J. De Francis Memorial Dash (G2) winner, returns to the Maryland stakes calendar for the first time since being run in 2002 at Laurel Park.

It is among four stakes worth $375,000 on the 11-race Independence Day holiday program along with the $100,000 Concern for 3-year-olds sprinting six furlongs, $100,000 Caesar's Wish going 1 1/16 miles for fillies and mares 3 and up, and $75,000 Jameela for Maryland-bred/sired females 3 and older scheduled for five furlongs on the grass.

The Lite the Fuse and Caesar's Wish are both part of the Mid-Atlantic Thoroughbred Championship (MATCH) Series. Sunday's program also includes a mandatory payout of the Rainbow 6, which carries a Maryland state record carryover jackpot of $1.351 million into the return of live racing Friday.

Post time Sunday is 12:40 p.m.

Yaupon gave the Heiligbrodts and Hall of Fame trainer Steve Asmussen the second of three straight Chick Lang victories Oct. 1, after the race was pushed back from mid-May amid the coronavirus pandemic. They also won with Mitole, the 2020 older male sprint champion, in 2019 and Mighty Mischief on May 15 of this year. Mighty Mischief also returns in the Concern.

“Pimlico is a nice track to run at. It fits our horses,” Bill Heiligbrodt said. “Going back to Mitole when he ran in the Chick Lang, he ran solid in the mud and he still ran exceptionally well. I couldn't believe he ran as well as he did. Yaupon ran good there last year in the Chick Lang. I'll be trying to win it again next year, I promise you that.”

Yaupon's final time of 1:09.10 in winning the Chick Lang by four lengths matched that of Lantana Mob, also trained by Asmussen, in 2008. It was the fourth consecutive win to open his career and second straight in a graded-stakes following the Amsterdam (G2) last August at Saratoga. Each of them came in front-running fashion.

The then-undefeated Yaupon headed from Pimlico to the Breeders' Cup favored to win the Sprint (G1), but found himself trailing horses for the first time. He ran into traffic trouble in upper stretch and wound up eighth in the field of 14, beaten 6 ¼ lengths.

“I need a race for him very badly. After his race there, he was odds-on heavy favorite in the Breeders' Cup and got a pretty rough trip,” Heiligbrodt said. “I've been trying to get him back on a straight line and he's doing pretty good right now. It's a wonderful opportunity to run him there.”

Yaupon has made one start this year, again encountering trouble running eighth in the Golden Shaheen (G1) May 27 in Dubai. He has been working steadily since mid-May at Churchill Downs for his return.

“I'm hoping he'll run good. Obviously, he's coming back,” Heiligbrodt said. “He went over to Dubai and had problems over there, so we're trying to get him straightened out if we can.”

Ricardo Santana Jr. will be in town to ride Yaupon for the first time from the far outside in a field of seven. Yaupon has raced exclusively at six furlongs throughout his career.

“He's doing really good right now [but] you never know until you race,” Heiligbrodt said. “He had a pretty bad experience in the Breeders' Cup, so we'll see what happens. But he's a very, very talented horse. He ran numbers like Mitole.

“He's not Mitole, and I don't think there will ever be another horse like him as far as consistently every time putting him on the track and running out of his skin, but he's a very nice horse,” he added. “He's a very nice pedigreed horse so I hope he runs well. I hope everybody over there will enjoy both [he and Mighty Mischief]. They're as good as I can send them.”

Two days after Yaupon's Chick Lang victory, Hillside Equestrian Meadows' Laki became a graded-stakes winner in the De Francis (G3), his first win following two previous subpar efforts at Pimlico. The 8-year-old gelding ran his win streak over the course to two in the April 24 Frank Y. Whiteley, marking his fifth straight season as a stakes winner.

An 11-time winner from 34 career starts with purse earnings of $805,162, the Maryland-bred Laki exits a fifth-place finish behind Special Reserve in the six-furlong Maryland Sprint (G3) May 15 on the undercard of the 146th Preakness Stakes (G1). Racing on the inside, he chased the early leaders but could not gain late and was beaten 4 ¾ lengths.

The Maryland Sprint came just 22 days following Laki's second career Whiteley victory. He'll have had 51 days from the Maryland Sprint to the Lite the Fuse, which trainer Damon Dilodovico believes is in his favor.

“I always like to give him the time when I can give it to him,” Dilodovico said. “Even though he didn't place well Preakness day, I still feel like he ran well. He came out of the race good. We scoped him after and he came back clean.

“His last breeze was a little bit slower than I was thinking I'd like to have going into it, but I had a bunch of horses work slow that day,” he added. “He came out of it pretty sharp; hopefully, not too sharp. He doesn't need too much. He probably just needs me to stay out of his way.”

Regular rider Horacio Karamanos will be aboard from Post 4.

Michael Dubb's Chateau, based in New York with trainer Rob Atras, has not raced since finishing second to Grade 1 winner Firenze Fire in the Runhappy (G3) May 8 at Belmont Park. The 6-year-old Flat Out gelding won the Tom Fool (G3), also at six furlongs, March 6 in his second start of the year and was fourth in the seven-furlong Carter Handicap (G1) April 3, both at Aqueduct.

Hillwood Stable's Valued Notion has won three of his four starts this year for Maryland trainer Rodney Jenkins. Most recently, he beat stakes winners Air Token and Oldies But Goodies in his stakes debut, the June 13 Ben's Cat at Pimlico, which was rained off the turf and run at five furlongs. His other wins have come at 5 ½ and six furlongs, both at Laurel Park against open company.

Also entered are 2020 New Castle winner Threes Over Deuces, second to Firenze Fire in that year's General George (G3); multiple stakes winner Lebda, eighth in the Maryland Sprint last out; and Whiskey and You.

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Speedy Jaxon Traveler Back At Pimlico For Saturday’s Chick Lang

West Point Thoroughbreds and Marvin Delfiner's speedy sophomore Jaxon Traveler, a head shy of being undefeated through five starts that include a pair of stakes victories, returns to Maryland seeking his first graded score in Saturday's $200,000 Chick Lang (G3) at Pimlico Race Course.

The 46th running of the six-furlong Chick Lang and 23rd renewal of the 1 1/16-mile Sir Barton, both for 3-year-olds, are among 10 stakes, six graded, worth $2.25 million in purses on a spectacular 14-race program headlined by the 146th renewal of the Preakness Stakes (G1), Middle Jewel of the Triple Crown.

Other graded-stakes on the card are the $250,000 Dinner Party (G2) for 3-year-olds and up and $150,000 Gallorette for fillies and mares 3 and older, each at 1 1/16 miles on the grass; $150,000 Maryland Sprint (G3), a six-furlong dash for 3-year-olds and up; and $100,000 UAE President Cup (G1) for Arabian horses.

First race post time is 10:30 a.m.

Jaxon Traveler is no stranger to Pimlico, having romped to a 10-length debut victory last September. Bred in Maryland by Dr. and Mrs. A. Leonard Pineau, the son of multiple graded-stakes winning sprinter Munnings then beat winners at first asking in October and became a stakes winner with a three-quarter-length triumph in the seven-furlong Maryland Juvenile Futurity Dec. 5. All three wins came in front-running fashion.

“He's going to be hard to beat,” Scott Blasi, top assistant to Hall of Fame trainer Steve Asmussen, said.

Asmussen has taken horses down this road before, winning the Chick Lang with Lantana Mob (2008), Holy Boss (2015), Mitole (2018) and Yaupon, who tied a stakes record (1:09.10) with his victory last fall. Mitole would go on to be named the champion male sprinter of 2019.

“We'll never question anything that Steve does. He has the Midas touch, especially with these types of horses,” West Point COO Tom Bellhouse said. “Steve just has this innate sense. A lot of people get these kinds of horses and the first thing they say is, 'When are we going to stretch them out?'

“We ran seven furlongs in the stake down there and we won, but he got a little tired and Steve just said, 'Listen, this horse is really, really special; it might just be up to seven [furlongs]. He might not be a horse that wants to go up to a mile,'” he added. “He just focuses his program on it. He did it with Mitole. He did it with Yaupon, just in recent times. He's just so good at that.”

Jaxon Traveler was being pointed to make his 3-year-old debut in the seven-furlong Spectacular Bid Jan. 16 at Laurel but was sidelined with a minor foot injury and wound up with Asmussen's winter string at Oaklawn Park. There, he found himself uncharacteristically off the pace in the six-furlong Gazebo March 10 but closed to be second to Sir Wellington before returning with a 2 ¾-length gate-to-wire triumph in the April 24 Bachelor, also at six furlongs.

“He had a little frog issue and he started to come around actually quicker than we anticipated,” Bellhouse said. “It's kind of a heartbreaker that he's not undefeated because of that race. He had a tough trip but he came running late and showed a different dynamic. Last time he just threw it down and threw in the kind of race that you love to see in that kind of sprint. He broke on top and never looked back.”

Irad Ortiz Jr. has the call on Jaxon Traveler from Post 4 in a field of six as the 124-pound co-topweight.

“He's just a really, really, really cool horse,” Bellhouse said. “He's an exciting horse to watch. When the gate opens, he goes and he never looks like he's going to get beat. There's never one step of the race where you're like, 'Oh no, he's in trouble.' He just went, especially in that last race against some really nice horses at Oaklawn. When he turned for home I was like, 'They're not catching him.'”

Jaxon Traveler will face another stakes winner in Lea Farms' Willy Boi, who defeated Ultimate Badger and next-out winner Lauda Speed in the six-furlong Hutcheson March 6 at Gulfstream Park. The Uncaptured gelding has won three of his four starts sprinting, running eighth when stretched out to 1 1/16 miles in Gulfstream's Jan. 30 Holy Bull (G3).

Narrow Leaf Farm's Hemp will make his stakes debut in the Chick Lang. The Maryland-bred Super Ninety Nine gelding cruised by 5 ¼ lengths in a seven-furlong optional claiming allowance over a muddy track April 10 at Laurel Park for trainer Anthony Farrior.

Bill and Corinne Heiligbrodt's homebred Mighty Mischief takes a two-race win streak into the Chick Lang, his stakes debut. The bay son of Into Mischief went gate-to-wire to break his maiden March 19 and then beat winners at first asking April 10, both sprinting six furlongs at Oaklawn, by a combined 7 ¾ lengths.

“He's a very fast horse,” Scott Blasi, top assistant to Hall of Fame trainer Steve Asmussen, said. “This is a big step up, but he works like a racehorse.”

ZWP Stable and Non-Stop Stable's Shackled Love cuts back for the Chick Lang off back-to-back tries around two turns including a half-length win in the 1 1/16-mile Private Terms. Gokmen Kaya's Palatial Times completes the field.

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Undefeated Yaupon Ties Stakes Record In Chick Lang Romp

L. William and Corinne Heiligbrodt's Yaupon kept his perfect record intact in impressive fashion Thursday, streaking to a stakes-record four-length triumph in the $200,000 Chick Lang (G3) at Pimlico Race Course.

The 45th running of the six-furlong Chick Lang for 3-year-olds helped launch a spectacular Preakness weekend program of 16 stakes, nine graded, worth $3.35 million in purses over three days featuring the 145th running of Saturday's $1 million Preakness (G1).

Stakes action was kicked off earlier on Thursday's card with upset victories by Hollis in the $100,000 Jim McKay Turf Sprint and A Great Time in the $100,000 The Very One, both going five furlongs on the grass.

Favored at 3-5 over eight rivals, Yaupon ($3.20) improved to 4-0 with his second straight graded-stakes triumph following the Amsterdam (G2) Aug. 29 at Saratoga in his previous start. The winning time of 1:09.10 matched Lantana Mob from 2008 for the fastest in stakes history.

Both Yaupon and Lantana Mob came from the barn of Hall of Fame trainer Steve Asmussen, who also won the 2018 Chick Lang with 2019 champion sprinter Mitole. It was the first Chick Lang victory for Hall of Fame jockey John Velazquez.

“Put him on the lead and keep him on the lead, and he keeps running,” Velazquez said.

Velazquez did precisely that, hustling Yaupon to the front from the gate and assuming control through testing splits of 22.77 and 45.11 seconds, pressed to his outside by Arkaan while the rest of the field tried to keep pace. Yaupon was firmly in command as Arkaan dropped back once straightened for home and sprurted away as Double Crown came with a steady run to edge 17-1 long shot Relentless Dancer for third.

“You've got to ride him the first part. For the first three-sixteenths of a mile, I had to ride him just to keep his head on the business,” Velazquez said. “Even at the three-eighths pole I am reminding him, 'Hey, keep your mind on your business.' Then when he switched down the lane then he knew. It was 'OK, time to go.'”

Unraced at 2, Yaupon debuted with a nose victory June 20 at Churchill Downs then rolled by 3 ¾ lengths in a Saratoga allowance July 18, both races coming over older horses. In his first race facing straight 3-year-olds he captured the six-furlong Amsterdam, his stakes debut.

Reeves Thoroughbred Racing's Double Crown won the Roar and Carry Back over the spring and summer at Gulfstream Park, and was exiting a third-place finish in the Smile Sprint (G3) Sept. 5 under regular pilot Cristian Torres, who made the trip north to ride. Double Crown was racing for the first time in Maryland since his debut triumph last September, after which he was purchased privately.

“He always gives 100 percent,” Torres said. “I had a perfect trip. He broke good. I let him settle off the speed. At the three-eighths, he started picking it up very nice and down the stretch, when I got him clear, he was rolling.”

Run as the Hirsch Jacobs Stakes from its inception in 1975 to 2009, the Chick Lang was renamed in honor of the racing industry legend widely known as 'Mr. Preakness,' who passed away in 2010 at age 83.

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