Kendrick Carmouche is set to be the first Black jockey in the Kentucky Derby since 2013.
Lousiana native Carmouche will make history on Saturday as the first Black jockey in the Kentucky Derby since 2013, and he’s still only one of a handful of Black jockeys to be active in the sport. The apple didn’t fall far from the tree with Carmouche; he is the son of a jockey, and he’s won more than 3,400 races and earned $118 million since his riding professionally for the first time in 2000.
“As a Black rider getting to the Kentucky Derby, I hope it inspires a lot of people because my road wasn’t easy to get there, and I never quit,” Carmouche said. “What I’ve been wanting all my career is to inspire people and make people know that it’s not about color. It’s about how successful you are in life and how far you can fight to get to that point.”
Three years ago, Carmouche made a comeback after breaking his leg. Afterward, he started training for his first Kentucky Derby mount by riding 72-1 long shot horse Bourbonic to victory in the Wood Memorial on April 3, NBC News reports. The news outlet says the horse will leave from the 20th post in Saturday’s race located at Churchill Downs.
“Obviously, there haven’t been many in recent decades, but if you go back to the early years of the Derby, the late 1800s, early 1900s, Black jockeys dominated the Kentucky Derby,” NBC Sports analyst Randy Moss said, according to NBC News. “Guys like Isaac Murphy and Jimmy Winkfield.”
Carmouche and fellow Black American jockey St. Julien will be the only U.S.-born Black jockeys to be in the Derby since 1921.
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