[Congressional Bills 109th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 231 Engrossed in House (EH)]
In the House of Representatives, U.S.,
May 5, 2005.
Whereas Jimmy ``Wink'' Winkfield was born on April 12th, 1882 in Chilesburg,
Kentucky, the youngest of 17 in a family of sharecroppers;
Whereas Wink was born in an era when African American jockeys dominated the
sport of horse racing, to the extent that African American riders won 15
of the first 28 Kentucky Derbies and in the first Kentucky Derby in
1875, 13 of the 15 jockeys were African American;
Whereas the African American jockey Oliver Lewis won the first Derby by two
lengths, and the African American jockey Alonzo ``Lonnie'' Clayton, at
age 15, is the youngest rider ever to win the Derby;
Whereas Wink worked by shining shoes, moved up as a stable hand, then as an
exercise rider, and rode his first race at the age of 16;
Whereas at the age of 22, Wink won back-to-back Kentucky Derbies in 1901 (on His
Eminence) and 1902 (on Alan-A-Dale), and placed second in 1903 (on
Early);
Whereas Wink is one of only 4 jockeys ever to accomplish this back-to-back feat,
and he was the last African American jockey to win the Kentucky Derby;
Whereas during his career Wink was known as king of the Chicago race tracks;
Whereas unfortunately, segregation eventually forced African American jockeys
off the race track and often into exile;
Whereas Wink left the United States by buying a steamer ticket to Europe and
settled down in Czarist Russia, where he became a wealthy and dominant
athlete in Russia's national sport;
Whereas Wink went on to win the Russian national riding title an unheard of 3
times, won the Moscow Derby twice, the Russian Derby three times, the
Grand Prix de Baden (in Germany), the Poland Derby twice, and the Grand
Prix de la Republique (in France);
Whereas the Bolshevik Communist Revolution in 1917 forced Wink to flee Russia,
and he led 200 jockeys, trainers, and owners over treacherous mountain
terrain into Poland;
Whereas Wink eventually settled down in France and retired in 1930 after
accumulating 2,600 racing victories in 10 countries, and turned to
raising and training horses on his farm outside of Paris;
Whereas in 1940, when the Nazis invaded France and commandeered his stables for
their own horses, Wink defended himself and his farm with a pitchfork,
only to eventually flee Nazi-occupied territory;
Whereas after decades of exile, Wink returned to the United States one last time
in 1961, 60 years after winning his first Kentucky Derby, when he was
invited to a pre-Kentucky Derby banquet at the historic Brown Hotel in
Louisville as a 2-time winner of the Derby;
Whereas Wink and his daughter Lillian were denied entrance through the front
door, but after a long delay were eventually admitted, and spent most of
the evening with a white jockey named Roscoe Goose, an ex-competitor
from their own Kentucky Derby days 60 years earlier, who sat with Wink
for the evening and for the Derby the following afternoon;
Whereas Wink returned to his home in Paris, where he died in 1974 at the age of
94 still homesick for the Kentucky bluegrass of his boyhood, his death
virtually unnoticed in the United States; and
Whereas in 2003, Wink was admitted to the National Racing Hall of Fame and
joined two other African American Hall of Fame jockeys, 3-time Kentucky
Derby winner Isaac Murphy and 2-time winner Willie Simms: Now,
therefore, be it
Resolved, That the House of Representatives--
(1) celebrates the remarkable life and accomplishments of one of the
truly great American athletes, Jimmy ``Wink'' Winkfield, who
continuously overcame racism and other significant obstacles during his
lifetime; and
(2) recognizes and celebrates the significant contributions and
excellence of African American jockeys and trainers in the sport of
horse racing and in the history of the Kentucky Derby.
Attest:
Clerk.