Wink - The Incredible Life and Epic Journey of Jimmy Winkfield

"One of the most extraordinary stories in sports history is also one of its least known. Jimmy Winkfield was a gifted jockey and a remarkably intrepid man, and his life was a singular adventure. His is a story of persistence, hardship, and triumph, and it should be long remembered."—Laura Hillenbrand, author of Seabiscuit: An American Legend "In the entire sweep of American sports, from the days of a roistering John L. Sullivan in the 19th Century through the Tiger Woods phenomenon of the 21st, no figure made a bolder and more original odyssey of his life than Jimmy Winkfield, the poor son of former slaves whose brilliance as a jockey bore him from the winner's circle at the Kentucky Derby to the royal courts of Czarist Russia and the Austro-Hungarian Empire and from Kaiser Wilhelm's Germany to the salons of Paris. In Wink, author Ed Hotaling skilfully reports and chronicles Winkfield's battles against racism in the New World--his courage and daring in escaping that most implacable of foes--and his success and rise to glory as a rider and then a trainer in the Old World. The tale of Wink is an illuminating and inspiring read." —William Nack, author of Secretariat: The Making of a Champion, and My Turf: Horses, Boxers, Blood Money and the Sporting Life "It is phenomenal enough that Jimmy Winkfield became a dominant force in American horse racing half a century before Jackie Robinson took the field for the Brooklyn Dodgers. But this two-time Kentucky Derby–winner's adventures after leaving to race overseas make his story all the more compelling. Ed Hotaling has a marvelous tale to tell. This is the stuff of great nonfiction."—Douglas Brinkley, author of Tour of Duty: John Kerry and the Vietnam War "In this fine book, Ed Hotaling adds the texture of a rich individual life to what his previous work has already told us about the great black jockeys of a century ago."—Henry Louis Gates, Jr., bestselling author, Chair of the Department of African and African American Studies and Director of the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research at Harvard University "After a number of up-the-track finishes by authors trying to emulate the success of Laura Hillenbrand's bestselling Seabiscuit: An American Legend , a worthy successor has at last broken out of the pack . . .Winkfield's story is so incredible you'll find yourself wondering why you've never heard it before." —MSNBC "One of the most extraordinary stories in sports history is also one of its least known. Jimmy Winkfield was a gifted jockey and a remarkably intrepid man, and his life was a singular adventure. His is a story of persistence, hardship, and triumph, and it should be long remembered."—Laura Hillenbrand, author of Seabiscuit: An American Legend "In the entire sweep of American sports, from the days of a roistering John L. Sullivan in the 19th Century through the Tiger Woods phenomenon of the 21st, no figure made a bolder and more original odyssey of his life than Jimmy Winkfield, the poor son of former slaves whose brilliance as a jockey bore him from the winner's circle at the Kentucky Derby to the royal courts of Czarist Russia and the Austro-Hungarian Empire and from Kaiser Wilhelm's Germany to the salons of Paris. In Wink , author Ed Hotaling skilfully reports and chronicles Winkfield's battles against racism in the New World—his courage and daring in escaping that most implacable of foes—and his success and rise to glory as a rider and then a trainer in the Old World. The tale of Wink is an illuminating and inspiring read."—William Nack, author of Secretariat: The Making of a Champion , and My Turf: Horses, Boxers, Blood Money and the Sporting Life "It is phenomenal enough that Jimmy Winkfield became a dominant force in American horse racing half a century before Jackie Robinson took the field for the Brooklyn Dodgers. But this two-time Kentucky Derby–winner's adventures after leaving to race overseas make his story all the more compelling. Ed Hotaling has a marvelous tale to tell. This is the stuff of great nonfiction."—Douglas Brinkley, author of Tour of Duty: John Kerry and the Vietnam War "In this fine book, Ed Hotaling adds the texture of a rich individual life to what his previous work has already told us about the great black jockeys of a century ago."—Henry Louis Gates, Jr., bestselling author, Chair of the Department of African and African American Studies and Director of the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research at Harvard University Long before Jackie Robinson broke the race barrier and integrated major league baseball, black jockeys had raced side-by-side with whites for nearly two hundred years. Around the turn of the twentieth century, black jockeys were among the best in the horse racing business. Indeed, they became such a threat to their white counterparts that they were banned from racing and their accomplishments, names, and stories have been lost to history. One might ask: who is the latest of the great black jockeys to ride in and win one of our nation's premiere races? What black jockey last won one of America's famous Triple Crown events? Sadly, the answer to both questions is the same: Jimmy Winkfield, in 1902. For the record, he won the Kentucky Derby in 1901 and 1902 - one of only a handful of jockeys to ever win the coveted race in consecutive years. But Jimmy Winkfield's story didn't end in 1902. A jockey without a home, Wink claimed most of the major purses in continental Europe. The All-Russian Derby boasted a purse three times that of the Kentucky Derby, and Wink won it three times in a row.; He was internationally famous and a fabulously wealthy member of the Russian aristocracy when the Bolsheviks overthrew the czar in 1917. Leaving Moscow for Odessa with his Russain wife, Winkfield and others continued to race, then, with the Bolsheviks advancing, marched 200 thoroughbreds a thousand miles to Poland, surviving on horseflesh. By the late 1930s he was training horses on the expansive grounds of his villa outside Paris when German troops occupied his house and stables. After challenging a horse-beating Nazi with a pitchfork, he was forced to flee again. After the war, Jimmy returned to the US only once, in 1961. Invited to the Kentucky Derby banquet at the legendary Brown Hotel, he arrived with his daughter, but because they were black, they were told they couldn't use the front door. Once inside, they were ignored. Wink died in Paris in 1974, still homesick at 94 for the Kentucky bluegrass of his boyhood Long before Jackie Robinson broke the race barrier and integrated major league baseball, black jockeys had raced side-by-side with whites for nearly two hundred years. Around the turn of the twentieth century, black jockeys were among the best in the horse racing business. Indeed, they became such a threat to their white counterparts that they were banned from racing and their accomplishments, names, and stories have been lost to history. One might ask: who is the latest of the great black jockeys to ride in and win one of our nation's premiere races? What black jockey last won one of America's famous Triple Crown events? Sadly, the answer to both questions is the same: Jimmy Winkfield, in 1902. For the record, he won the Kentucky Derby in 1901 and 1902 - one of only a handful of jockeys to ever win the coveted race in consecutive years. But Jimmy Winkfield's story didn't end in 1902. A jockey without a home, Wink claimed most of the major purses in continental Europe. The All-Russian Derby boasted a purse three times that of the Kentucky Derby, and Wink won it three times in a row.; He was internationally famous and a fabulously wealthy member of the Russian aristocracy when the Bolsheviks overthrew the czar in 1917. Leaving Moscow for Odessa with his Russian wife, Winkfield and others continued to race, then, with the Bolsheviks advancing, marched 200 thoroughbreds a thousand miles to Poland, surviving on horseflesh. By the late 1930s he was training horses on the expansive grounds of his villa outside Paris when German troops occupied his house and stables. After challenging a horse-beating Nazi with a pitchfork, he was forced to flee again. After the war, Jimmy returned to the US only once, in 1961. Invited to the Kentucky Derby banquet at the legendary Brown Hotel, he arrived with his daughter, but because they were black, they were told they couldn't use the front door. Once inside, they were ignored. Wink died in Paris in 1974, still homesick at 94 for the Kentucky bluegrass of his boyhood After 22-year-old Jimmy Winkfield won his second consecutive Kentucky Derby in 1902, black jockeys were banned from American racing. Sick at heart, Winkfield began an odyssey that historian Ed Hotaling brings to life in this captivating biography. This title presents the history of this American racing champion who found a new life in Europe. A Vivid Portrait Of African-american Jockey Jimmy Winkfield Who, After Winning His Second Consecutive Kentucky Derby In 1902, Was Banned From Racing In The United States, But Went On To Have A Successful Career In Europe. Jimmy Winkfield never forgot the sunlit spot where he was born on an old back road in Kentucky, eight miles east of Lexington.