Isaac Burns Murphy, February 11, 2026

Описание: The Prince of Jockeys, Isaac Burns Murphy, was the first of the African American superstars, long before Muhammad Ali or even Jesse Owens was born. Murphy began racing professionally at the age of 14 in 1875. Today, February 11, 2026, Lyles Station Historic School and Museum honors Murphy, the first American jockey elected to the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame in 1955 and the first jockey to win three Kentucky Derbys.
Isaac’s mother, America, trusted her young son to Eli Jordan, a family friend and respected Black horse trainer. He started him off as an exercise rider. Murphy fell off the horse on his first ride—the “vigorous instruction” required to get him back in the saddle paid off.
Jordan recognized Isaac’s potential—along with his small size—and started training him in Lexington, Kentucky, then took him to Fleetwood Farm in Frankfort, Kentucky, a horse farm still in business today. It was there that young Isaac rose to national prominence.
Murphy’s first win in late 1875 at the Lexington Crabb Orchard saw him riding upright and not using a whip but instead talking to the horse and using a spur. By the end of the next year, he had eleven wins to his credit.
Isaac first rode in the famous Kentucky Derby in 1877, taking home a respectable 4rth place, not bad for a sixteen-year-old who had only been racing two years.
He went on to ride 628 winners in his 1,412 mounts—three of those were Kentucky Derby wins, four American Derby wins, and five Latonia Derby wins. To this day, he has the best winning average in history, with 34% according to official records, but Murphy claimed it as 44% since not all the races were recorded in the chart books. In 1886 alone, he had a 40% win record.
Murphy wasn’t just a jockey riding a horse. He seemed to communicate with the horses, rarely using a whip but using muscular cues to gauge the horses’ performance. He developed what was called the “grandstand finish,” pacing the horse for a charge down the homestretch, on to victory. He didn’t worry about keeping pace with the pack but was able to pull out in front at the last minute, keeping track of the speed and progress of his horse and the others, in a manner that other jockeys couldn’t replicate.
When he was only eighteen years old, a racing newspaper, the Spirit of the Times, declared him as one of the best jockeys in America, with “a steady hand, a quick eye, a cool head, and a bold heart.”
Murphy’s average yearly salary, during the height of his career, ranged between $10,000 to $20,000.
He was the highest-paid jockey—white or black—in the United States. According to the Louisville Courier Journal, “his annual earnings were four or five times those of a United States Senator, and he was better known than most statesmen.” He and his wife Lucy purchased their Lexington mansion in 1887 for $10,000—comparable to $350,000 in today’s income. The ten-room brick home sat on seven acres and featured a roof observatory overlooking the Kentucky Association racetrack.
Murphy was the first African American known to own a racehorse—he had several and trained them—and invested in real estate.
Murphy was treated as a superstar, staying in exclusive hotels and traveling with a White valet.
In 1890, Murphy, easily regarded as the nation’s best Black jockey, was set to ride against Edward (“Snapper”) Garrison, considered the best white jockey. Murphy won.
Race fans can visit the Isaac Murphy Memorial Art Garden in Lexington. While his mansion is gone, the park features stones salvaged from the foundation, with the focal point a sixteen-foot-tall stainless-steel sculpture topped by a medallion with Isaac’s image. Storyboards provide the history of Black jockeys.
Murphy is remembered in the racing world with the annual Isaac Murphy Award presented to the jockey with the highest winning percentage. He was honored when the Isaac Murphy Stakes was initiated at the Arlington International Racecourse in Chicago in 1997. This was formerly known as the American Derby, which Isaac easily won four times during the 1880s.