Isaac Burns Murphy
Isaac Burns Murphy Won The Kentucky Derby On This Day In 1884. Riding The Horse, Buchanan.
Six Years Later He Won The Kentucky Derby Again, Riding A Horse Named Riley. And The Very Next Year (1891) He Rode The Horse, Kingman, To Victory.
Murphy Was The First Black Jockey To Win The Kentucky Derby Three Times. He Won The American Derby And The Latonia Derby Five Times Each. At The Time, These Two Events Were Considered More Illustrious Than The Kentucky Derby.
Out Of A Total Of 1,412 Races, Murphy Won 628 Times, Earning The Title, "Greatest Horse Jockey Of The Nineteenth Century."
During The 1800's African American Jockeys Dominated The Sport Of Horse Racing. Fifteen Of The First 28 Kentucky Derbys Were Won By Black Jockeys.
Isaac Burns Murphy Died Of Pneumonia In 1896. He Was 35 Years Old. His Gravesite Is Located In The Man O' War Park, In Lexington, Kentucky.
"In Order For Black History To Live, We Must Continue To Breathe Life Into It." -- Hubert Gaddy, Jr.
