Kevin Krigger has a chance to become the first black jockey in more than a century to win the Kentucky Derby on Saturday, but he’s more concerned with the future than the past.
“I feel like I’m on the winning horse,” says Krigger, who will be aboard speedster Goldencents for the 139th running of the Kentucky Derby on Saturday. “There’s not another horse I wish I was on instead. I’m right where I want to be.”
Goldencents has four wins in six starts, and Krigger has ridden him for all of them.
Last month the colt qualified for the Kentucky Derby — first jewel in US flat racing’s triple crown — by winning the Santa Anita Derby in California.
Although Krigger is relatively inexperienced, Goldencents’s trainer Doug O’Neill, who saddled last year’s winner I’ll Have Another, said he never considered replacing Krigger with a more seasoned rider.
“It takes a lot of hard work and self-confidence to take an opportunity and run with it,” O’Neill said. “He was just so ready, so prepared for this opportunity and we’re seeing the results of it.”
Krigger, who was introduced to riding when he climbed aboard a neighbour’s horse in his native St. Croix, in the US Virgin Islands, was the first black jockey to win the Santa Anita Derby.
His ride on a Kentucky Derby contender has recalled the early days of the venerable race in which black jockeys dominated — and the fact that segregation eventually forced them out of US racing.
Thirteen of the 15 horses in the first edition of the Kentucky Derby in 1875 were ridden by black jockeys and 15 of the first 28 editions were won by black riders.
That ended with Jimmy Winkfield’s victory in 1902. Winkfield, born in Kentucky in 1882, won back-to-back editions of the Kentucky Derby, aboard Eminence in 1901 and Alan-a-Dale in 1902.
He was a star, winning a documented 220 races in 1901, but in 1904 he left the United States for Europe — becoming champion jockey in Russia and also finding success in Germany and France.
Since 1921, only one black jockey has even ridden in the Run for the Roses — Maron St. Julien finishing seventh in 2000.
On Saturday, Krigger will be joined in the field by fellow St. Croix native Victor Lebron, who will ride longshot Frac Daddy.
Krigger put a picture of Winkfield in his locker at Santa Anita. But he wants to be regarded on his own merits.
“Of course I understand — if I didn’t, something has to be wrong,” Krigger told the Lexington Herald-Leader of the interest in his chances and what a victory could mean for the small number of other aspiring black jockeys.
“But I always used to feel that these people don’t see me as a white rider or Hispanic or black,” he told the newspaper. “By the time I got people to notice me, it was because I was a good rider.”
Krigger chasing history at Kentucky Derby
