Black Sports : Pull Out of the Kentucky Derby? Pressure on a Black Owner Mounts

[Clyde C Coger Jr]

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tough decision




Pull Out of the Kentucky Derby? Pressure on a Black Owner Mounts

Pull Out of the Kentucky Derby? Pressure on a Black Owner Mounts

In any other year, Greg Harbut would be enjoying the achievement of a lifetime. On Saturday, he will watch his horse Necker Island enter the starting gate for the 146th running of the Kentucky Derby, a moment of pride for a family that over the generations has built its success in the...

news.yahoo.com

But this isn’t like any other year. Harbut is the rare Black horse owner in a sport that is among the whitest in America. Now, he is hearing calls that he should boycott America’s most famous race.







Joe Drape
The New York Times

Greg Harbut watches as his horse, Necker Island, prepares to race during the Runhappy Ellis Park Derby at Ellis Park in Henderson, Ky., Aug. 9, 2020. (William DeShazer/The New York Times)
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[Clyde C Coger Jr]

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Understandable




Why one African-American horse owner refused to boycott Kentucky Derby for Breonna Taylor

Why one African-American horse owner refused to boycott Kentucky Derby for Breonna Taylor

Greg Harbut 35, an African-American horse owner participating in the 146th Kentucky Derby, was asked by civil rights activists to withdraw from Saturday’s race to protest the police killing of Breonna Taylor. Harbut is one of the industry’s few Black owners, and Louisville activists said that...

www.yahoo.com

“I stand with Black Lives Matter, and I stand for justice for Breonna Taylor,” Harbut said. “But as an African American man involved in an industry that’s not very inclusive to people who look like me, there’s no way that I could sit out on one of the largest race days in the U.S. and not bring awareness to the contributions that African Americans have given to horse racing.”








Renee G
TheGrio
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