African Heritage in Horse Racing: The Untold Stories of Black Jockeys and Trainers

Horse racing is viewed primarily as a European import. The “game of kings” does have a regal sort of aspect to it that conjures to the mind images of an English King presiding over a race from his ornately appointed seat. Queen Elizabeth was, incidentally, a considerable fan of the sport, owning many thoroughbreds throughout her life.

The sport has been just as captively received in Africa. Since the eighteenth century, fans of African horse racing have been crowding around tracks eagerly waiting to see if their favored horse would finish well.

Earliest Roots

We mentioned in the introduction that horse racing is thought of primarily as a European concept. As far back as medieval times, English athletic fans would gather around to watch horses and knights demonstrate a wide variety of skills.

In the eighteenth century, that interest would develop a more keen focus on the animals themselves.

Thoroughbred programs began to pick up steam. Flat tracks were adopted. Racing formats that would seem very familiar by today’s standards emerged. People would even place bets.

While modern racing fans make wagers by figuring out how to bet on horses online, they in 18th-century England would bet amongst themselves or, as the races began to take off, through more systemized organizations.

Unfortunately, at the same time England was finding ways to make horse racing better, it was also taking over the world.

Britain began to colonize South Africa, having “acquired it” from the Dutch. “Acquired,” in this case, means that two countries spent a few decades fighting over land that was never theirs to begin with.

Britain ultimately came out ahead, gaining control of Cape Town through occupation during the Napoleonic Wars. Possession would be solidified with the Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1814. It was through colonization that horse racing, as we know it, was brought to Africa.

As an interesting side note, African-raised horses were a fairly successful export during these same years. These horses were called “capers,” because they came from the Cape region.

Capers fared well in European races throughout the 19^th century until thoroughbreds became the overwhelming horse of choice in all competitive racing.

Black Jockeys In African Racing

The history of black jockeys in Africa is a little anticlimactic, at least when examined during the colonial period in which racing was spreading throughout the continent. Most jockeys racing in Africa at this time were white Europeans. This, because race relations between white and black populations in South Africa have historically been managed through extreme segregation.

Race relations were no better across the ocean, but the disparities played out in a different way. During these same years in the United States, the situation was very different. Thirteen of the first fifteen Kentucky Derby winners were black. Black jockeys completely dominated the sport for all of the 1800s and then all but disappeared during the 1900s.

Unfortunately, the reasons behind their rise and their fall were both rooted in racism. Black jockeys were the norm in the United States because, at the time, taking care of horses was considered the work of enslaved people. Therefore, it was the enslaved who would typically handle them on race days.

Slavery ended in the United States in 1865. But even then, stable work remained a “lower class” profession frequently left to black Americans. With major events like the Kentucky Derby–first held in 1875, that slowly began to change.

People began to take racing much more seriously. White horse owners and jockeys began to deliberately cut black jockeys out. Sometimes through exclusive hiring policies. Other times through violence. It was common for white jockeys to hit their black rivals with riding crops during races, or even attempt to run them off the track.

By the 1900s, black jockeys had all but disappeared from the American racing scene. Even today, black jockeys are rare in the United States.

Black Jockeys in Africa Today

Interestingly enough, black jockeys have only just begun to have their moment in South African horse racing. In 2014, S’manga Khumalo became the first black jockey to win the Durban July–the most prestigious South African racing event.

This milestone arrived a full 117 years after the race’s establishment in 1897. Khumalo is still active today. At this point in his career, he has won more than two thousand races and is considered one of the best African jockeys active in the region today.

The history of black jockeys is rooted in tremendous trauma and social strife. Despite this baggage, S’manga Khumalo’s success demonstrates the inevitability of progress, even if it can sometimes take a long time to get there.