Chevaux de course et jockeys was first exhibited at the Salon of 1885 (N° 3707) and again at the Exposition Universelle four years later. It was so well received on each occasion that Frémiet sent it on show abroad - to Antwerp in 1885 and Copenhagen in 1888. Horswell considered the group to be 'one of the finest models of this subject to be found in animalier sculpture' and quotes the critic Jacques de Biez: 'M. Frémiet recently published with his editors, M.M. Boussod and Valadon, two studies of racing horses, which add the thoroughbred to the series of horses by this artist. A group of jockeys in the saddle and a portrait of the stallion, Barberousse, they are much more documentary than simply ornamental - the historiographer has left his mark of perception and observation'. The bronze master-model is in the Musée des Beaux-Arts, Dijon (inv.no. 4188).