Tenth International Conference on Sport & Society

Abstract

Horse racing, one of the oldest and most celebrated sports in America, reflects the most noticeable population change in the U.S. through the rise of Latino jockeys in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. In the nation’s premier horse racing event in 2015, the Kentucky Derby, 61% of the jockeys were Latino. Equibase, which track North American Thoroughbred Racing stats, revealed that in 2015 the top 10 jockeys by earnings were all Latino . A 2003 survey of 347 horse farms found that 44% of the workers were Latino, and the number has grown since then. My study moves beyond quantitative assessments of how many Latinos work in the equine industry to address what the growing number of Latinos means in terms of horse racing and in terms of broader societal issues transforming theU.S. and in terms of shaping images of Latinos in the U.S. Horse racing is a particularly useful site of analysis not only because a high number of Latinos work in the equine industry but also because it is a profession in which Latinos have experienced significant success at the highest echelons of riding and racing. I suggest that the public arena of the track serves as a platform for the Latino athlete to claim a space in American culture and to negotiate perceptions of Latinos within contemporary American society.