New middle grade novel tells the story of first female Black jockey
Cheryl White’s name may not sound familiar, but she was a trailblazer in the equestrian world, becoming the first licensed female Black jockey at 17 years old in 1971. Over her two-decade career, she won 750 races and became a racing official after she was injured and forced to retire.
Sarah Maslin Nir and Raymond White Jr. wrote “The Jockey and Her Horse” as the second book in Maslin Nir’s middle-grade “Once Upon a Horse” series. The book, published Sept. 5, tells Cheryl’s story of navigating the horse racing world as a Black girl in a white male-dominated field with her horse Jetolara.
New York Times reporter and author Maslin Nir first learned about Cheryl from an Instagram post by Madison Jade, a kid influencer who was inspired to start riding after watching a video of Cheryl. When Maslin Nir searched the groundbreaking jockey’s name on Google, a different Black jockey named Sylvia Harris’s face appeared because Cheryl was so unknown.
Maslin Nir — a rider and a self-proclaimed “horse girl” — said she didn’t want Cheryl’s history to remain forgotten. Cheryl died of a heart attack in 2019, and Maslin Nir found her brother Raymond’s contact information through her obituary. With a horse race honoring Cheryl at Mahoning Valley Race Course in Ohio coming up days later, Maslin Nir decided to fly out to visit Raymond.
Cheryl’s family always hoped that they would find a way to tell her story, said Raymond. He said he knew Maslin Nir was the person to tell it with him, comparing their initial meeting to “love at first sight.” Although he had never written a book before, he said telling his and his sister’s story came naturally.
Maslin Nir interviewed Raymond and his family members to make sure everything was accurate — although in the book, Cheryl falls through a trapdoor in the barn loft onto Jetolara’s back, when in real life, said Raymond, it was actually him who fell.
Raymond said he hopes the book inspires adults and children alike to go after what they want, even if they are trailblazing like Cheryl. “Just because you don’t see somebody that looks like you doing something, that doesn’t mean that you can’t do it,” said Raymond. “We didn’t write the book so kids would become jockeys or ride horses. We wrote it so kids could follow their dreams.”
The last line of the novel reads, “Cheryl White was the first Black girl in America to become a jockey. She won because she knew she would not be the last.”
Sarah Maslin Nir will speak about “The Jockey and Her Horse” in the barn at Acorns to Oaks Horsemanship Center in Acton on Oct. 18 at 5:30 p.m.