By MARK F. HALL
Decades before baseball player Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier to become the "first" black to play with whites in modern professional sports, black and white jockeys were competing alongside one another on racetracks such as Saratoga.
Edward Hotaling's new book, They're Off!: Horse Racing at Saratoga (Syracuse University Press, 1995), weaves the story of early African American jockeys into the larger history of horse racing at Saratoga and the growth of horse racing as a sport in America. Mr. Hotaling performed much of the research for the book from the Library's collections. His finished work uncovered so much information about a previously unstudied topic that it led to the creation of a new catalog subject heading: "Afro-Americans in horse racing."
They're off! tells the history of the Saratoga resort from the time it was dubbed "Saratoga Springs" by George Washington, through the rise of horse racing, the reign of champion horses such as "Man o' War" and "Secretariat," and up through more recent races. It also tells the story of the birth of American spectator sports - Saratoga is the oldest professional sports venue in America, opening in 1847 - and with it, the growth of American culture. Along the way, the book ties the story into the larger American scene against the background of the Civil War, the Great Depression, Prohibition and the rise of organized crime and gambling.
Mr. Hotaling, a producer and writer for NBC in Washington, as well as a frequent contributor to The New York Times and other national publications, says he "could not have written the book without the Library of Congress." Among his finds were the 1865- 66 Rules and Regulations of American Turf, the first such guidebook in U.S. sports. This item was particularly helpful because, Mr. Hotaling said, not even the National Museum of Racing (also in Saratoga) has a copy.
The reader is introduced to a number of colorful figures from American history. Among them are famous gamblers Diamond Jim Brady and Bet-a-Million Gates, and gangsters Arnold Rothstein, Meyer Lansky and Charles "Lucky" Luciano, as well as various members of the Belmont, Whitney and Vanderbilt families. Another interesting character was John Morrissey, a former boxer who became the first professional athlete to serve in Congress and the first professional gambler to do so.
Much of Mr. Hotaling's information on Morrissey was also found at the Library. For example, he found pictures of Morrissey in the Prints and Photographs Division. The Manuscript Division's Andrew Johnson collection contained a number of letters from Morrissey to President Johnson. Other papers in the Manuscript Division's collections contained a letter in which George Washington attempted to purchase Saratoga.
Mr. Hotaling said he also used newspapers, microfilms and books in the course of his research. To his knowledge, the Library's Rare Book collection is one of the few places that have The Spirit of the Times, a late-19th century weekly with extensive coverage of horse racing. Mr. Hotaling's research took him "all over the Library," where he found the staff "extraordinarily helpful" and always willing to "go the extra mile." He said that the Library staff's assistance "not only contributed to the book's success but made it possible."
What makes the book unique is its focus on the role of African Americans in horse racing. Isaac B. Murphy, the son of a slave, was one of the most successful jockeys of the late 19th century, winning 628 races, including three Kentucky Derbys, two of them back to back. In all, the Derby was won at least once by 10 different black jockeys. Black jockeys also won six of the first 29 runnings of the Travers at Saratoga, and at one time or another they were among the winners of virtually every major stakes race. In more recent times there have been far fewer black jockeys in horse racing, but Mr. Hotaling's book recalls a time when, at least "for a few minutes, the only race that mattered was on the track."
The lack of previous study on this subject made research more challenging, but now that the Library of Congress has established "Afro-Americans in horse racing" as a subject heading, Mr. Hotaling hopes it will become "a new field of study - for a subject that really deserves it."
Mark Hall is a cataloger in the Copyright Office.