COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) – It was on a 400-acre farm in Ashtabula County that a legend sharpened her skills.

“We were always around horses, I mean, that was our life,” Raymond White Jr. said. “Our father was a prominent trainer, he trained racehorses for over 60 years.”

The White family was a true horse family. Raymond worked for decades as a jockey agent, but it was his sister Cheryl who grew to become a household name before she even graduated high school.

“Well, it started before she actually rode her first race. There was all this prepress ‘black girl wants to become first black jockey,’ ‘high school girl wants to become the first black female jockey,’” Raymond said.

Raymond said the race came and she lived up to the hype. He remembers being a little boy in the grandstands as his big sister, the first ever African American female jockey at just 17 years old, walked into the winner’s circle.  

“She was viral before we knew what viral was,” he said.

Pictures of Cheryl with her big smile and warm eyes were splashed across national publications. Cheryl had entered and dominated the old boys club of horse racing and had captured the attention of those both in and outside the sport.

“You know, she was on What’s My Line and she was on the cover of Jet magazine,” Raymond said.

For the next 20 years Cheryl continued to dominate the sport, but in 1992 completed her final race as a jockey. She then stepped away from the limelight. And just like that Cheryl faded the headlines.

“She eventually got tired of the press, she got tired,” Raymond said. “She had a magazine call her one day and she’s like, ‘No, I don’t, I don’t want to do it.’”

Cheryl continued working in the only industry she ever knew in various capacities on the west coast  until her passing in 2019.

Her younger brother and biggest supporter has spent countless hours since her death making sure her name and legacy is never forgotten.

A chance connection with a writer with the New York Times formed a fast friendship and out of it a children’s book, a doll and even a nonprofit called the Cheryl White Project.

“She left this earth but she’s still here with us and we want her to be able to make a difference,” Raymond said.