In any other year, Greg Harbut would be enjoying the achievement of a lifetime.
On Saturday, he will watch his horse Necker Island enter the starting gate for the th running of the Kentucky Derbya moment of pride for a family that over the generations has built its success in the thoroughbred business. Harbut is the rare Black horse owner in a sport that is among the whitest in America.
Demonstrations are planned at the track, and Harbut and his team said civil rights activists had privately urged him to follow the lead of professional basketball and baseball players who boycotted their own games, and stay away from the race. His grandfather Tom could not even sit in the grandstand to watch the Derby. Harbut, 35, himself has endured slights that make him feel like an outsider in the sport. When he shows up in the paddock before a race, he notices the sidelong glances of fellow owners and gets the occasional query about what pro team he plays on or what movie he was in.
He is disturbed, however, by the repeated shooting deaths of Black people by police officers and has watched as the protests in Louisville have turned their attention to Churchill Downs.
Last week, more than 60 people were arrested at the track. An African-American jockey, Oliver Lewis, won the inaugural running of the Kentucky Derby, inaboard Aristides, trained by Ansel Williamson, who was born into slavery.
Just as swiftly, however, Jim Crow laws and ostracism in the sport pushed Black riders out of the saddle and into the barns as manual laborers, or to Europe, where they were more widely accepted. Their history has been mostly erased over the last years, but the virulent sentiment that made it vanish is very much alive in the sport.
In July, amid the widespread tumult over the death of George Floyd in police custody, Tom VanMeter, a prominent Kentucky horse owner and sales conor, posted a racist comment on Facebook directed at the predominately African-American N. But the incident also brought attention to the lack of diversity at the top levels of the sport.
The Jockey Club, for example, does not have an African-American among its members and has just five people of color among its employees. For generations, a representation of the annual Keeneland auctions has been the green-jacketed African-American grooms leading one horse after another into the sales ring, where white auctioneers on a platform singsong bids of millions of dollars to a sea of white faces.
Wilson, a lawyer and former investment banker, blamed the insular nature of the sport for reinforcing the status quo. To do so takes time, money and commitment.
Pull out of the kentucky derby? pressure on a black owner mounts
Then, each took a knee in solidarity with those protesting the death of George Floyd. Carmouche, the only African-American rider in New York, had organized the demonstration along with John Velazquez, a Hall of Famer who is considered an elder statesman in the sport. A few days earlier, Carmouche, 36, had posted an anguished and tearful video on Facebook. It just never ends. He is among a handful of Black riders working in the United States.
He rose from the bush tracks of his native Louisiana to dominant stints in the Mid-Atlantic region at racetracks like Delaware Park and Parx Racing near Philadelphia. Five years ago, he arrived in New York and perennially finishes among the top 12 in the jockey standings.
His father, Sylvester, was a jockey and his original role model. He does not have a mount in the Kentucky Derby.
In fact, while African-American jockeys dominated in the early years of the race, no African-American jockey participated in the Derby between andwhen Marlon St. Julien earned a place in the starting gate. But Carmouche understands how important it is for people to see Harbut, along with his business partner Ray Daniels, in the paddock, especially at the Derby. None of the three owners of Necker Island — Harbut, Daniels and Wayne Scherr, who is white — fit the profile of old-money, deep-pocketed thoroughbred owners.
Harbut is a blood stock agent, a sort of broker who buys and sells horses for clients in Japan and the Middle East. He met Daniels, a businessman in Lexington who was interested in thoroughbreds but did not know how to enter the business.
Two years ago, they formed a syndicate in the hope of introducing more African-Americans to the sport. Beyond the thrill of winning races, Daniels became interested in the rich history of Black people in horse racing. He saw an opportunity to enrich the culture of the sport as well as strengthen an industry that is vital to Kentucky. Their trainer, Chris Hartman, suggested they with another of his clients, Scherr, a retired teacher and wrestling coach in South Dakota. Harbut and Daniels intend to make the most of it.
Necker Island may be a long shot, but they know they have already won. They will know how African-Americans built horse racing. And, hopefully, more of us will return to it. Pressure on a Black Owner Mounts.
