Here in episode one we'll get to know Sam Alexander, a retired jockey and exercise rider who will be our tour guide throughout the series. Sam wanted to ride horses from as far back as he can remember. "I learned how to ride a horse on a tree stump,' he says. "A real saddle mounted on a tree stump with stirrups and a bridle." Sam was one of a very few Black exercise riders in his day who went on to get a jockey license. And what would sound like bragging from anyone else somehow sounds matter-of-fact from Sam. "I went from exercise boy to jockey to prove a point: You cannot outride me."