James Long (1952 - 2017)
Mr. Long grew up in New York City. His career in racing started when he was a senior at the New York School of Printing in Hell’s Kitchen. In 1972, a high school teacher invited him to Belmont Park setting the 4’8”, 98-pound Long on a new career path. Long spent the next two years as a horse walker (hot walker). In 1974, former Boston Celtics owner and breeder Harry T. Mangurian Jr. gave Long his first shot at jockeying. Long’s first win was on July 4, 1974, at Aqueduct Racetrack.
Between 1976 and 2008, Long made over 4,000 career starts, winning 309 races and recorded more than $2.7 million in earnings. Long’s last winning race was at Great Lakes Downs in 2007 and his last mount was at Turfway Park in 2008. During James Long’s 34-year career, he challenged stereotypes as one of the few black jockeys in horse racing during the 1970s. At one point, Long was the only Black jockey riding in Kentucky.
Long maintained his connection to the horse industry after he stopped racing. He served first as a clerk of scales and then as a state steward at Hazel Park in Michigan. Long also pushed for increased prominence of the African American horse racing legacy within American history.
During a speech in Lexington, Long noted, “The very first professional athlete in America was not a basketball player, not a football player, not a baseball player. He rode horses, the sport of kings, and he was African-American.“
Eugene Carter (1926 - 2019)
Mr. Carter grew up in Maddoxtown and despite his father being a tobacco farmer, he chose to work with horses. He wanted to be a jockey and at age 15 his mother let him find a job with horses. He first worked as an exercise rider at Elsmeade Farm in 1951.
Carter gleaned some of his knowledge of horses watching Will Harbut handle Man o’ War at Faraway Farm. During one visit, Harbut allowed Carter to briefly sit astride the legendary champion. He was apparently the last living person to do so.
Carter had another reason to visit Harbut: to get in his good graces and date his daughter Lillian. After serving in the Navy during World War II, Carter married Lillian, a marriage that lasted 56 years.
In 1967, after exercising horses at Churchill Downs, Carter was asked to ride in the High Hope Steeplechase. Carter had always wanted to be a jockey, but many states refused to license African American jockeys at that time because of segregation laws. During the race, Carter’s family was forced to stand outside the track but they did witness him winning his only race.
Carter worked at Saxony Farm for 25 years, breaking yearlings and working the sales ring. He retired in 2002. When Lillian died in 2003, he found seasonal work at the Kentucky Horse Park Hall of Champions, and worked with retired race horses such as Cigar, John Henry, and Funny Cide. For fourteen years he told visitors his stories of famous horses and, of course, how he was the last living person to sit on Man o’ War. He died at age 93, the father of nine children.