LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- For the first time in eight years, a Black jockey will ride in the Kentucky Derby.
Kendrick Carmouche, who grew up in Louisiana, is the jockey for Bourbonic.
Black jockeys were atop 14 of 15 horses in the first Kentucky Derby in 1875. Black jockeys won 15 of the first 28 Kentucky Derby races. But then everything changed.
Jim Crow laws in the early 1900s began to roll back advances Black Americans had made.
Carmouche will be the first Black jockey in the Derby since 2013. He is just one of a handful to ride in the Derby over the past century.
He is one of the few remaining Black jockeys in the United States. He says he hopes to inspire others because his journey to the Derby wasn't easy.
Carmouche and Bourbonic will break from gate 20 on Saturday.
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- Kentucky Derby Museum to expand Black Heritage exhibit
- What to do with the racism in the Kentucky Derby's past -- and its ongoing effects?
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