American Pharoah’s beautiful photo on the cover the June 15, 2015, issue of Sports Illustrated marked only the third time a horse has graced the front of that magazine in the last 23 years since the start of the 21st century. Recent controversy aside, the cover of Sports Illustrated has historically been a very big deal. Smarty Jones got the cover in 2004 and Mine That Bird got it in 2009 after the Kentucky Derby.

The American Pharoah photo, besides the fact that it features a beautiful athlete in the act of greatness, also captures an important historical event in such an appropriate context. The framing of the photo with all of the hands held aloft with phones is instantly smile-inducing and should provide future generations with an accurate look at how Americans experienced life in 2015.

Horse racing used to grace the cover of the magazine much more frequently, however.

There have been more than 30 different horse racing-related Sports Illustrated covers since the inception of the magazine in 1954 (not counting the time George Steinbrenner appeared on the cover riding a horse). Those covers, too, in their own ways, gave a glimpse into what life was like in America and how we viewed the sport of horse racing.

Here’s a look at some of my favorites:

Steeplechase at Belmont

SI featured horse racing on the cover in only its 10th issue in its first volume in 1954 with this photo of a steeplechase race at Belmont Park. The issue included not one, but two articles on racing, including one on champion Nashua by Whitney Tower.

Opening of Hialeah

Despite having no Triple Crown winners during the decade, horse racing still made the Sports Illustrated cover 12 times in the 1950s, including two covers dedicated to harness racing! Can you imagine? Many of those covers featured jockeys or horses who won the Kentucky Derby, but this cover from January 1959 simply announces the start of racing at Florida’s Hialeah Park and featured a piece by Audax Minor that previewed winter racing around the country.

Kentucky Derby Preview

Starting in 1956 and through much of the 1960s, the magazine would run a Kentucky Derby preview and give the Derby the cover. During this period, there were a number of very artistic and unusual covers, including this one from 1962. The artist, Tomi Ungerer, was from France and had recently moved to New York City. Ungerer had been working with a number of magazines creating art for their covers and features. Sports Illustrated sent him to Kentucky for the Derby issue, and he didn’t immediately take to the scene at the races, saying, “I didn't fall in love at first with the beauty of the horses as much as with the stunning mass of color, especially the crowds and the jockeys.”  

Robyn Smith

In 1972 when she graced the cover of Sports Illustrated, Robyn Smith was the leading American-born jockey at Aqueduct, male or female, and was second to Hall of Fame jockey Angel Cordero. By the end of the 1970s, a number of jockeys would appear on the cover of SI, including Cordero, Johnny Longden, and Steve Cauthen. Robyn Smith, however, was called a “Sensation in Silks” and attracted many eyeballs for more than just her piloting skills. A year after appearing on the cover, Smith would meet and begin a relationship with Fred Astaire, 46 years her senior, and would go on to marry him.

Affirmed’s Triple Crown

In 1978, after winning the Triple Crown, it is somehow fitting that Affirmed’s Sports Illustrated cover features him hidden behind the horse he just nudged to win it, the horse he had to beat in all three legs of the race, his rival Alydar. Alydar’s name is prominent on the saddlecloth in the photo. And though it is clear that Affirmed is ahead, the two horses are so close that the drama of their rivalry is well displayed.

50-1

After Mine That Bird’s longshot victory in the 2009 Kentucky Derby, Sports Illustrated put him and jockey Calvin Borel on the cover and declared that he had energized horse racing with his improbable win. The photo is dramatic, a head on shot of Borel celebrating after the muddy win. Perhaps he had energized Sports Illustrated, if not the sporting public at large. Before Smarty Jones got the cover in 2004, as he looked poised to win a Triple Crown, SI had only rarely featured horse racing through the 1980s and barely at all in the 1990s, depending on how you want to count inset photos and headlines. Perhaps American Pharoah’s victory — and incredible Sports Illustrated cover — will have even more of an energizing effect.