In honor of Black History Month, I wanted to shine the spotlight on Oliver Lewis, the first jockey to win the Kentucky Derby, America’s longest continuous sporting event. Lewis was born in 1875 and at the young age of 19, he entered the Derby. At that time, the race was run at the Louisville Jockey Club, and later at Churchill Downs. Onboard a horse named Aristide, Lewis thought his main job was to just tire out the other horses in the field to help a horse named Chesapeake win. Both Aristide and Chesapeake were owned by H. Price McGrath, so it was a perfect strategy.
But in the final stretch of the race, Chesapeake fell back in the pack. Aristide ran neck and neck upfront alongside a horse named Volcano. Lewis pulled Aristide ahead and won the race by two lengths.
On the cusp of that amazing victory, Lewis placed second in the Belmont Stakes but won three more races at the Louisville Jockey Club. All on board Aristide. After that winning season, he retired.
His next phase in life was working as a day laborer. Lewis loved the racing world, however. He began handicapping horses and providing tables and racing forms to bookies, becoming a bookie himself in Kentucky, where the practice was legal. He married and had six children, and his son James eventually took over the bookie business.
Lewis died in 1924. He was 68.
Lewis was part of a great era in horseracing when African-Americans dominated and made many great contributions to the sport of kings. It began in the early 19th century and was an offshoot of slaves working as grooms and trainers for wealthy white landowners in the South. The first African-American jockey on record was known as “Monkey” Simon and he rode in Tennessee back in 1806. By the 1820s, horse racing was the most popular sport in the country. The majority of jockeys and trainers were African-American.
During the Civil War, racing came to a halt. Horses were recruited for the war efforts. However, in 1875, racing took off again with the running of the first Kentucky Derby, and the big win by Oliver Lewis. He was followed by another amazing African-American jockey, Isaac Burns Murphy.
Murphy was the first jockey ever to be inducted into the National Museum of Racing Hall of Fame. Other jockeys broke new ground, too. Many African-American trainers also made names for themselves during this time, along with many grooms, clockers, exercise riders, and stable hands.
Sadly, after World War II, African-Americans were only hired as grooms and stable hands. The world of racing became about big money, and white men dominated in that respect. In the 21st century, most jockeys were of Latin or Hispanic origin. However, African-Americans were now owning and breeding racehorses. In the year 2000, jockey Marlon St. Julien rode in the Kentucky Derby, the first since 1921.
What made Lewis stand out was his ability to stay in the race, so to speak, after his last ride. As a bookmaker, he wrote detailed handicapping charts that served as the foundation for those found in the seminal racing publication, the Daily Racing Form, among others. Oliver Lewis knew horses well, from riding them to victory. He took his knowledge and put it on the pages of the guides that betters and handicappers used. His legacy remains a huge part of that today.
He was buried in the Lexington No. 2 Cemetery in Kentucky along with other African-American jockeys of his time, including Isaac Murphy. Many sportswriters neglected Oliver Lewis’ fascinating story, but today we celebrate his contributions to the sport, an honor long-deserved.
