The Brothers Black : Corey’s Star Shines Brighter Than Ever, While Kenny’s Career Takes a Downturn

Like Scott Stevens, Corey Black could have been a jockey riding in his brother’s shadow.

Two things have prevented that:

--Corey Black has made it on his own.

--And Kenny Black, his older brother, has run afoul of two state racing authorities and is no longer riding.

Corey, who just turned 18, won more than 200 races and came close to $4 million in purses last year. He finished second to Allen Stacy, the Maryland jockey, in voting for the Eclipse Award as the year’s top apprentice.

Kenny Black, 23, was one of the nation’s leading apprentices in 1980 and went on to win more than 800 races, including the California Derby.

In 1985, however, Black had weight and drug problems and his riding license was suspended in California.

Last spring, Black resumed riding in Kentucky. An exercise rider for Bold Arrangement just before the English horse finished third in the Blue Grass Stakes at Keeneland, Black almost got the mount on the colt in the Kentucky Derby the next week. When Chris McCarron became available, he rode Bold Arrangement to a second-place finish.

Black was one of the leading riders at Canterbury Downs last summer when reports of his possible drug use again surfaced, and he was suspended by Minnesota officials for refusing to take a test.

“Kenny helped me get started,” Corey Black said. “A lot of the trainers knew who I was because of Kenny. And Kenny would watch me ride and help me every day in the beginning. But after a while, I was Corey and he was Kenny. By the time we got to Del Mar last summer, I was pretty much on my own.”

Kenny Black is in the San Francisco area, according to Corey, and his plans are unknown.