Ansel Williamson (1806-1881) was an American

thoroughbred horse racing Thoroughbred racing is a sport and industry involving the racing of Thoroughbred horses. It is governed by different national bodies. There are two forms of the sport – flat racing and jump racing, the latter known as National Hunt racing in t ...

trainer and a member of the

National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame The National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame was founded in 1950 in Saratoga Springs, New York, to honor the achievements of American Thoroughbred race horses, jockeys, and trainers. In 1955, the museum moved to its current location on Union Av ...

. He trained horses who won the

Kentucky Derby The Kentucky Derby is a horse race held annually in Louisville, Kentucky, United States, almost always on the first Saturday in May, capping the two-week-long Kentucky Derby Festival. The competition is a Grade I stakes race for three-year ...

Travers Stakes The Travers Stakes is an American Grade I Thoroughbred horse race held at Saratoga Race Course in Saratoga Springs, New York. It is nicknamed the "Mid-Summer Derby" and is the third-ranked race for American three-year-olds according to internation ...

Belmont Stakes The Belmont Stakes is an American Grade I stakes race for three-year-old Thoroughbreds run at Belmont Park in Elmont, New York. It is run over 1.5 miles (2,400 m). Colts and geldings carry a weight of ; fillies carry . The race, nicknamed Th ...

Jerome Handicap The Jerome Stakes is a stakes race for thoroughbred horses run each January at Aqueduct Racetrack. Open to three year olds, the race is run at one mile and carries a purse of $150,000. It is a Road to the Kentucky Derby qualifying race, with the wi ...

Phoenix Stakes The Phoenix Stakes is a Group 1 flat horse race in Ireland open to two-year-old thoroughbred colts and fillies. It is run at the Curragh over a distance of 6 furlongs (1,207 metres), and it is sch ...

and

Withers Stakes The Withers Stakes is a Graded stakes race, Grade III American Thoroughbred horse race for three years old horses over the distance of miles on the dirt scheduled annually in February at Aqueduct Racetrack in Queens, New York (state), New York. T ...

. Williamson was born a

slave Slavery and enslavement are both the state and the condition of being a slave—someone forbidden to quit one's service for an enslaver, and who is treated by the enslaver as property. Slavery typically involves slaves being made to perf ...

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...

in 1806. His early horse racing experience came for owner Thornton Boykin Goldsby, where he notably trained champion horse Brown Dick to victories in top races in Atlanta, Mobile, New Orleans and Charleston. In 1864 he was purchased by

Robert A. Alexander Robert Aitcheson Alexander (1819 – December 1, 1867) was an American breeder of Thoroughbred and Standardbred horses. Biography Born on a farm near Midway, Woodford County, Kentucky, he and his siblings inherited the property on his father's d ...

, owner of the famous

Woodburn Stud Woodburn Stud was an American horse breeding farm located in Woodford County, Kentucky about ten miles (16 km) from the city of Lexington. It was established in the 18th century as an original land grant property of General Hugh Mercer to ...

near

Midway, Kentucky Midway is a home rule-class city in Woodford County, Kentucky, in the United States. Its population was 1,641 at the time of the year 2010 U.S. census. It is part of the Lexington-Fayette Metropolitan Statistical Area. The town sits just off ...

. Taught the breeding and training of horses, after he was freed Williamson remained in Alexander's employ. He conditioned a number of successful horses including the undefeated U.S. champion three-year-old male,

Norfolk Norfolk () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in East Anglia in England. It borders Lincolnshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the west and south-west, and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the No ...

and the undefeated

Asteroid An asteroid is a minor planet of the inner Solar System. Sizes and shapes of asteroids vary significantly, ranging from 1-meter rocks to a dwarf planet almost 1000 km in diameter; they are rocky, metallic or icy bodies with no atmosphere. ...

. Williamson was the trainer for Merrill, ridden by

Abe Hawkins Abe Hawkins, also known in later years as Uncle Able Hawkins, The Black Prince, The Dark Sage of Louisiana, and The Slayer of Lexington, was a slave on the Ashland sugar plantation located in Darrow, Louisiana, in Ascension Parish. Duncan Farrar ...

when he won the third

in 1866. Willamson won that prestigious race again in 1873 with Tom Bowling who would win 14 of his 17 career races. Following Robert Alexander's death in 1867, Williamson went on to train many great horses including

Virgil Publius Vergilius Maro (; traditional dates 15 October 7021 September 19 BC), usually called Virgil or Vergil ( ) in English, was an ancient Roman poet of the Augustan period. He composed three of the most famous poems in Latin literature: t ...

who was the sire of the great Hindoo. However, he is best remembered for having trained

Aristides Aristides ( ; grc-gre, Ἀριστείδης, Aristeídēs, ; 530–468 BC) was an ancient Athenian statesman. Nicknamed "the Just" (δίκαιος, ''dikaios''), he flourished in the early quarter of Athens' Classical period and is remember ...

, the winner of the inaugural

in 1875. That same year, his horse

Calvin Calvin may refer to: Names * Calvin (given name) ** Particularly Calvin Coolidge, 30th President of the United States * Calvin (surname) ** Particularly John Calvin, theologian Places In the United States * Calvin, Arkansas, a hamlet * Calvi ...

won the

. In addition, Williamson trained horses who won other major races such as the

and the

. In 1998 Ansel Williamson was inducted posthumously into the

.Ansel Williamson
- Retrieved 2014-06-07

References

External links

Ansel Williamson at the United States National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame
19th-century American slaves African-American sportsmen American horse trainers People from Virginia United States Thoroughbred Racing Hall of Fame inductees People from Midway, Kentucky African-American equestrians 1806 births 1881 deaths {{US-horseracing-bio-stub