Oliver Lewis won the first Kentucky Derby in 1875 aboard a little red colt named Aristides. Now, his place in history as a pioneer of the Run for the Roses is cemented in bronze just beyond the first turn of the the legendary dirt track at Churchill Downs.

On June 24, the Oliver Lewis Foundation and Churchill Downs unveiled a statue of the first jockey to win the world's most legendary race. It is believed to be the only statue of a Black jockey in the world.

Black jockeys dominated the early days of thoroughbred horseracing in Kentucky. Of the first 28 Kentucky Derbys, 16 were won by Black jockeys. But as segregation swept through the nation, Black jockeys were pushed out of the industry. The last Derby won by a Black jockey was by Jimmy Winkfield in 1902.

Lewis was born into slavery in Woodford County in 1856. On Jan. 1, 1863, when Lewis was 6, Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, freeing enslaved people in the Confederate states. But Kentucky, a union state, voted against the ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment (until 1976). It’s not known when Lewis was considered free.

Aristides, the horse that Lewis rode, has long been celebrated in Churchill Downs' history. A statue of the colt in full stride is outside the main gates of Louisville's racetrack. He was trained by legendary Black trainer Ansel Williamson, who is a member of horseracing's Hall of Fame. Aristides is also a member of the Hall of Fame. Lewis has not been inducted into the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame.

The story of the first Kentucky Derby had been told several times but only highlighting the horse. In the leadup to the 150th Run for the Roses, The Courier Journal wrote the race through Lewis' perspective. In response to the story, Churchill Downs invited Lewis' descendants to Louisville as part of several festivities in the run-up to the big race, including his great-grandson and his great-great-grandson watching the historic race from the First Turn Club.

That day in 2024, NBC aired a piece on Lewis, giving more than 15 million viewers some of the first extended history of the man and the horse who started it all.

It was at that race Rodney Van Johnson, Lewis' great-great-grandson, came up with the idea for the statue. For years, his mother Gladys kept a folder of family records, ready for the next time a reporter came asking about the first Kentucky Derby-winning jockey. Van Johnson and his family designed the statue off the only known photo of Lewis from around the same age he was when he won the Derby. In the photo, Lewis stands next to a fence post. The only change from that photo is that the fence post was changed to a post with a horse's head.

Lewis had other trips aboard horses, including Aristides. Before it was called the Triple Crown of racing, the little red colt and the 18-year-old jockey raced in the Belmont Stakes, finishing second.

Lewis again rode Aristides in 1875, this time in the Belmont Stakes, finishing second, but Henry Price McGrath, the horse's then-owner and a notorious gambler, picked a different jockey to ride the champion horse at other big races.

The Keeneland Library, located in Lexington, has a traveling exhibit on the extensive history of Black horsemen with The Heart of the Turf: Racing's Black Pioneers, which has educated youth and adults in every state and 35 countries since its launch in September 2023.

This story will be updated.

More: Oliver Lewis won the first Kentucky Derby atop Aristides. His story doesn't end there

Stephanie Kuzydym is an enterprise and investigative reporter. She can be reached at skuzydym@courier-journal.com. Follow her at @stephkuzy.

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Oliver Lewis statue unveiled at Churchill Downs

A federal court ruled for a third time that the enforcement power of the agency tasked to oversee the safety of thoroughbred racehorses and horsemen is unconstitutional.

The case involves the National Horsemen's Benevolent and Protection Association (HBPA) and 12 state associations against the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority (HISA). Kentucky's HBPA is not among them.

The National HBPA is represented by attorneys at the Center for American Rights, a nonprofit law firm that litigates in favor of constitutional rights. The firm has argued HISA — as a private, self-regulating corporation — unconstitutionally executes federal regulatory powers over the horseracing industry.

“We have been fighting this battle for the constitutional rights of horsemen for over five years, and we continue to win," National HBPA CEO Eric Hamelback said in a June 11statement. "It is just common sense that Congress cannot make a private corporation the judge, jury and executioner of our industry.”

In a statement, HISA CEO Lisa Lazarus said, in part: "Although expected, we are still disappointed by the Fifth Circuit's ruling."

The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals released a 45-page ruling on June 11 which found that HISA violates Article II, Section 1, Clause 1 of the U.S. Constitution, which delegates all executive power to the President.

The court ruled that HISA delegates executive power to a private corporation — the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority, Inc. — which is not properly overseen by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).

"HISA’s enforcement provisions violate the private nondelegation doctrine," the ruling states. "The statute empowers the Authority to investigate, issue subpoenas, conduct searches, levy fines, and seek injunctions — all without the FTC’s say-so. That is forbidden by the Constitution."

What does this mean for the safety of thoroughbred racehorses?

Despite the ruling, HISA still has authority to oversee its horseracing safety programs and rules in Kentucky and nationally. After a dozen horses died in the leadup to the 2023 Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs, HISA held a safety summit of regulatory veterinarians to review records of the horse racing deaths at the track that created new safety measures, as well as a review of the racing surface.

The push for a national horseracing authority has been around for more than a decade, including from industry groups like The Jockey Club.

In the last four years, dozens of horsemen who have spoken with The Courier Journal on HISA's constitutionality have all said they are interested in uniform regulations across states that protect the integrity of the sport and the welfare of the horse, but not necessarily handed down from the federal government.

What is HISA?

Congress established HISA in 2020 to create uniform enforcement across thoroughbred racing. The agency oversees medication usage, lab accreditations, racetrack safety programs and safety improvements for injuries to horses and jockeys.

Horsemen have long seen the agency as public when it benefits from being a public power, but private when it benefits from the protections of a private agency.

In reality, HISA is a quasi-government entity that is technically a private, self-regulatory, not-for-profit agency. It is supposed to operate under the oversight of the Federal Trade Commission, much like how FINRA operates under the U.S. Securities and Stock Commission. FINRA, or the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, oversees the rules for stockbrokers and their firms. That federal agency was established more than 80 years ago.

HISA's actions, though, have caused several lawsuits, in West Virginia and Louisiana, which aren't currently under HISA's jurisdiction due to ongoing legal battles. Churchill Downs Incorporated (CDI) also recently took the horseracing authority to federal court over a billion-dollar outstanding bill.

HISA is funded by collecting fees from racetracks across several jurisdictions where it applies its safety programs, like at Churchill Downs in Louisville and other CDI-owned properties.

More: Federal agency sent Churchill Downs a $2M bill for fees. CDI responded with a lawsuit.

Who wanted to create HISA and why?

While industry agents like The Jockey Club and the Water Hay Oats Alliance (WHOA) pushed for a regulatory agency, Kentucky's own Congressman Rep. Andy Barr and U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell eventually took up the cause. Barr advocated for a horseracing authority to "protect equine athletes and strengthen confidence and international competitiveness in the sport" according to a statement when the legislation passed in 2020.

Neither Barr nor McConnell or their spokespeople provided a comment for this story by publication.

In recent years, horsemen who spoke with The Courier Journal have all had the same sentiment, though. They say the creation of HISA slipped through because it was attached in the 11th hour to the 2020 bi-partisan COVID stimulus package — but without any industry scrutiny on what was happening.

What other court rulings have happened involving HISA?

The first time the court found HISA unconstitutional was in November 2022, ruling it was an unconstitutional violation of the private nondelegation doctrine, "resurrecting a doctrine that had been little used in the last 90 years," said the June statement from the National Horsemen's Benevolent and Protective Association. The National HBPA is a nonprofit that represents thoroughbred horsemen throughout the U.S. and Canada.

"The court ruled that Congress had illegally given legislative powers to a private corporation," the National HBPA's statement said.

Congress tweaked the language of the law, but whether or not HISA was constitutional under the new language was still up for interpretation.

In July 2024, the Fifth Circuit ruled Congress had now illegally given executive powers to the private corporation.

When the Supreme Court decided another nondelegation case, FCC v. Consumers' Research, it returned the ruling of HISA to the Fifth Circuit for a third decision in light of the Supreme Court's decision regarding Consumers' Research.

In its ruling, the Fifth Circuit wrote, in part: “The Horsemen … contend that HISA facially delegates unsupervised enforcement power to private actors. They are right. .... Consumers' Research does not change our analysis."

The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled on a similar case questioning HISA's constitutionality. Three states — Oklahoma, West Virginia and Louisiana — lost that ruling. The states petitioned the Supreme Court to hear the case.

A third case sits with the Eighth Circuit Court, brought forward by horsemen in Iowa and Arkansas. That court previously ruled, in a split decision, that HISA did not violate the private nondelegation doctrine. The case was sent to the Supreme Court, but the high court returned the case to the lower court and ordered it to also revisit the legal challenges. The Eighth Circuit Court has not issued a new ruling.

What happens now?

Since the federal rulings between the Fifth and Sixth Circuits are split, the case will likely head back to the to the Supreme Court to make the final decision.

"Although expected, we are still disappointed by the Fifth Circuit's ruling, particularly given the Sixth Circuit's strong affirmation of HISA's constitutionality after the Supreme Court sent the cases back to the lower courts last June," Lazarus said.

"HISA remains the law of the land, and our rules and programs are fully in effect. While we await the Supreme Court’s ultimate word, we will continue to be focused on our mission of protecting the safety and integrity of thoroughbred racing. "

Stephanie Kuzydym is an enterprise and investigative sports reporter. Reach her at skuzydym@courier-journal.com or @stephkuzy.

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: No immediate impact expected after HISA enforcement power blocked