Riders Up!

A checkboard blue-silked jockey leading a thoroughbred contender announces Pleasanton’s horse racing history at the corner of Valley and Bernal. The checkboard blue “silks” represent the local Jeff Bonde Racing Stables. The magnificent chestnut horse is” Smiling Tiger”. Painted by jockey and self-taught artist Pedro Mercado, the utility box commemorates thundering hoofs and colorful silks.

Older than the famed Saratoga Racecourse by several years, the Pleasanton racetrack is considered the oldest continuously operating racetrack in California and the oldest one-mile track in the United States. Don Refugio Bernal established the racetrack in 1859 on a portion of Rancho El Valle de San José, which he received through a Mexican land grant in 1839. The oval one-mile course quickly became a venue for spirited competitions among local residents. Later, his sons Agustín and Antonio Bernal inherited the track in the settlement of Alisal (now Pleasanton), continuing the family tradition.

Attracting racing enthusiasts, the sleepy village of Pleasanton was best known for its soft track and clear weather. U.S. Senator George Hearst, the father of newspaper mogul William Randolph Hearst, was an active breeder and racer, often racing in Pleasanton. The California-bred Thoroughbred Morvich trained at the Pleasanton track and won the 1922 Kentucky Derby.  The first California-bred horse to win it. The famed Depression-era superstar Seabiscuit trained at Pleasanton while racing at Santa Anita.  P-Town grew from hamlet to village to town, and by 1981, Pleasanton was a quaint and bustling city.

Pedro Mercado was one of a group of Latino jockeys who ventured to the Bay Area in the 1990s to race at Golden Gate Fields and surrounding racetracks. He is immortalized on a 1997 trading card as a jockey ‘star’.  Pedro’s father was an artist and encouraged his early hobby in equine and human portraits. Private clients recognized his artistic talents and commissioned many works.  “Riders Up!” is his only public artwork. Pedro’s acute awareness of horses and people has propelled him into photography, where he continues to capture moments in time with a lens and a brush.

The Civics Arts Commission “Project Paint Box” commissioned “Riders Up!” with 2018 Public Art Acquisition Funds. A private donor made a significant anonymous donation.

Jan Coleman-Knight