I took this photograph minutes prior to a stakes race at Keeneland Racecourse in Kentucky, USA. In that instant, I was not fully conscious of the tense mental engagement permeating the scene. Nobody smiles, not one bit of levity emerges, and no chitchat passes among participants. Even the track official in the extreme right foreground wears on his face a most solemn expression — as he might demonstrate while attending a funeral.

Our subject (at least our focal point) appears foreground, center-frame: a female jockey mounting Number 9. Contrasting the woman against her counterparts, it seems she is barely affected by the general apprehensiveness. The gentle incline of her head indicates she she might have reached a state of contemplative flow. Notice her right hand clasping one rein, delicately, using two relaxed fingers; and compare that to the corrugated sinews in the forearm of the handler in the ball cap holding the other half of her reins.

The athletes mount powerful animals. Once the tumult commences they jostle among similar beasts-and-riders at speeds exceeding 40MPH, risking brain concussion, neck injury, broken bones, permanent disability and death each time they compete. Weak and tiny creatures compared their horses, the jockeys must live by courage and by mental sharpness, both of which are engraved on the surface of our image.