This program serves at-risk youth through the channels
of horsemanship and riding.
The Kentucky Horse Park Mustang Troop Program is proud to partner with the CHI Saint Joseph Health’s Creating Safer Neighborhoods Initiative. This collaboration allows the program to reach more youth in need from across Fayette County. The Creating Safer Neighborhoods Initiative, the health care system’s youth violence prevention program in Lexington, encourages youth and community members to establish an intolerance for violence, creating a safer and healthier Lexington community. The program is supported through a grant from the CommonSpirit Health Mission and Ministry Fund. CHI Saint Joseph Health is part of CommonSpirit Health, which has hospitals and care sites in 21 states.
By La’Mequa Lewis
I can’t imagine how it would be
To be a horse jockey like Isaac Murphy
He was a teen when he started 14 to be exact
Meaning he was only four years older than me
And that’s a fact!
He won many horse races, he was one of a kind
He was one of the best African American Horse Jockeys of all time
He had a way of training his horses
He was nice and he was kind
That’s why he is a legend of his time
Oliver Lewis another African American Horse Jockey
Won several horse races back in the day
We celebrate his accomplishments
By naming Newtown Pike Extension
Oliver Lewis Way
Every day I pass by Isaac Murphy’s mural
And Oliver Lewis Way but I never gave it a thought
Until I was exposed to the Horse Park
And had the opportunity to be taught.
By Joshua Preacely
1901 flew by like a bumblebee,
It happened faster than the eye could see.
Gone from making $8 a month to a thousand per race,
Now look at me, who could fathom my pace.
Standing in front of thousands who love me,
Eminence is under me prepared for the journey.
I know we have trained but the pressure weighed on me like a mountain,
Will I be able to contain what’s racing through my brain, am I outdone?
Minutes gone in a flash,
We’re getting lined up in the starting stalls.
Is this really happening?
Could I win the 1901 Kentucky Derby.
Am I, Jimmy Winkfield, ready to face the sand,
Am I, a small sharecropper, ready to take a stand.
I’ve won so many races, what’s going through my head?
NO, don’t succumb to doubt,
If I hold back now, goodbye to the crowds shouts.
I am the best at what I do,
One with the horse down to the shoe.
Wake up, it’s game time,
There’s no way I’ll do anything but climb.
Everything goes away now it just me and his Eminence,
*Buh-dump* *Buh-dump* We are in perfect sync, with a high amount of resonance.
Look out! we’re about to change the game,
We’ll rise to the top and the crowd will sing my name.
*Silence* …. …. …. *gUnShoT* The race has begun,
With haste, Eminence and I push up the pace of the whole race,
Silence as I dominate by almost two whole lengths.
As I cross the finish line you can hear my cries of joy sharply,
Because I just won the 1901 Kentucky Derby.
