Rich Strike highlights sport's lack of diversity

LOUISVILLE, KY. >> When Rich Strike bolted into horse racing's spotlight in a little over two minutes with his upset Kentucky Derby victory, he shared the stage with his handler, who has long toiled in the shadows constantly tending to the champion colt.

Rich Strike's attention stems from winning as a nearly 81-1 long shot, but groom Jerry Dixon Jr.'s newfound recognition comes from being one of few Black horsemen left in the sport once dominated by people who look like him.

“I totally understand it because I was looking at something about the Derby and I saw how there were Blacks in the beginning,” said Dixon, 31 and a fourth-generation horseman who works with his father — trainer Jerry Sr. — for Eric Reed, who trains Rich Strike.

“And then years afterward, you can see the change, like we were slowly fading away.”

A lack of diversity is one of the biggest obstacles to growth in horse racing, along with inconsistent safety and medication standards. The government stepped in to address safety and doping concerns, but there is no national program to increase diversity — by gender or race — in the industry.

That wasn't always the case for African-Americans, who were a key part of early Derby history and thoroughbred racing.

Black jockeys won 15 of the first 28 Derbies from 1875-1902. Isaac Murphy had three victories, and Willie Simms and Jimmy Winkfield each won twice. Black people also owned and trained thoroughbreds through the early 20th century before segregation and Jim Crow laws in the South pushed many away from horse racing by restricting jockey licensing and ownership.

That history is fairly well known, but what's new is how the already small number of Black people still engaged in the sport seems to be shrinking.

A handful of Black horsemen can be seen around the backside barns of tracks working as trainers, grooms and hot walkers, but their numbers are scarce compared to the overwhelming presence of Latino workers.

With no governing body in horse racing, exact numbers are not available. However, no one disputes the shift in demographics.

“What the racism did in America, Caucasian people didn't want to see Black people have stuff like that,” said historian and horseman John Taylor Jr.

“And as time went by and Blacks stopped taking an interest in the sport and stopped working on the backside, that's when you started seeing the (Latinos) coming in. The jobs that they're doing now, we used to do.”

Economics and the time demands of tending to horses are factors often cited in the low number of Black and white people working in the barns. But while Saturday's Belmont Stakes — the last leg of the Triple Crown — pays a prize purse of $1.5 million, everyday races are much less lucrative with smaller payouts that must be divided multiple ways among owners, trainers and workers.

It does not make for a lavish lifestyle.

Many backside workers at Churchill Downs live in dormitories near the barns or above them. Compared to other industries that pay higher wages and offer set hours with health benefits, horse racing is a daily job that requires getting up well before sunrise to train and care for horses. Then, coming back in the afternoon to do it again. Days off are hard to come by.

Horsemen interviewed for this story declined to discuss wage rates, pay scales and benefits — which can vary. They are quick to point out that horse racing is not for everybody.