Game Stallions and Other “Horseface Minstrelsies” of the American Turf

Abstract

This essay considers how one’s ability to see animals as “performers” seeking to flatter a human spectator lies at the very root of modern experience, which developed in the nineteenth century. As a case study, it explores the development of the game racehorse, an equine character perceived as a knowing, willing participant in the then masculine cultures of competitive horse breeding, racing, and gambling. Elaborating J. J. Clark’s literary model of “horseface minstrelsy,” it examines how the habits and conventions of the racing community celebrated those horses who produced desirable behavior on the track and winning offspring in the stable as noted individuals and honorary whites who endorsed human control and competitive goals. Finally, the essay argues that the ideologies of elite and victorious lineage articulated through interspecific performance with celebrated individual horses further served to naturalize broader human hierarchies of race, gender, and class.