IV 
109TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION 
H. RES. 231
Recognizing and celebrating the life and accomplishments of the great African 
American jockey Jimmy ‘‘Wink’’ Winkfield and the significant contribu-
tions and excellence of other African American jockeys and trainers 
in the sport of horse racing and the history of the Kentucky Derby. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
APRIL 21, 2005
Mr. RUSH (for himself and Mr. WHITFIELD) submitted the following 
resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Government Reform 
RESOLUTION 
Recognizing and celebrating the life and accomplishments 
of the great African American jockey Jimmy ‘‘Wink’’ 
Winkfield and the significant contributions and excellence 
of other African American jockeys and trainers in the 
sport of horse racing and the history of the Kentucky 
Derby.
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 Ken-
tucky Derbies and in the first Kentucky Derby in 1875, 
13 of the 15 jockeys were African American;
•HRES 231 IH 
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 young-
est 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 Amer-
ican 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 Rus-
sia’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 Po-
land;
•HRES 231 IH 
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 com-
mandeered his stables for their own horses, Wink de-
fended 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-Ken-
tucky Derby banquet at the historic Brown Hotel in Lou-
isville 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 even-
tually 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 fol-
lowing 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—