Longtime jockey Cindy Murphy was just seven wins away from her milestone 2,000th victory last June at Prairie Meadows, but a pre-race incident left her with injuries severe enough that that goal could easily have been ripped from her grasp forever.
Riding the 2-year-old filly Crypto Mo, trained by her husband Travis, Murphy was approaching the starting gates when the first-time starter spooked and reared straight into the air. Then 60 years old, Murphy recalls bailing out off the filly's side, but Crypto Mo lost her balance and landed on top of her rider.
“I can remember laying on the ground,and I knew I was injured, but I was telling the guys to go get another rider because I knew how nice this filly was,” Murphy said. “She wasn't hurt or anything, but it was a long enough delay to get me loaded up into the ambulance.”
Murphy was transported to the hospital and diagnosed with eight broken ribs, four pelvic fractures, and a tear in her abdominal wall. Her pelvis was misaligned, though doctors didn't catch that until several weeks later, and Murphy opted to continue her healing without any surgery.
It was 13 months later when Murphy triumphantly piloted that same Crypto Mo to victory in the Grade 3 Iowa Oaks, making that 2,000-win milestone a reality and earning her first graded stakes win in the process.
“It's a goal I've been trying to reach for a long time,” said Murphy. “You know, it's been one setback after another, but I finally reached it!”
Now 61 years young with her longtime goal achieved, Murphy can feel retirement beckoning.
“I've actually retired a couple times, but I missed it and I came back,” she admitted. “But now I have to realize that I'm getting older. I am going to finish this season out at Prairie Meadows, just hand-picking which horses I'll ride, but I promised my kids and grandkids that I'd slow down a bit. I'm sure I'll still get on horses in the mornings, though.”
Certainly a small part of that decision stems from the post-Iowa Oaks sale of Crypto Mo in Fasig-Tipton's July Horses of Racing Age Sale. The 3-year-old daughter of Mohaymen brought a final bid of $500,000 from Hunter Valley Farm, a serious return on investment for the filly originally purchased for $20,000 at the Keeneland September Yearling Sale.
Murphy doesn't hold her injury against Crypto Mo, of course; no horsewoman worth her salt would. The hardest thing, Murphy said, was watching the filly and other favorite horses compete under other riders for the remainder of her 2-year-old season.
While Murphy required two months off from strenuous activity (doctors recommended three months, but she returned to galloping at two months on the dot), Crypto Mo ran third in her first career start and won at second asking. The filly ran seventh in the Prairie Meadows Debutante to finish out her season, and got some time off at the Murphys' 160-acre farm in Oklahoma.
This year, Crypto Mo has had Murphy aboard for each of her starts. Her first two outings were nothing to write home about, but when stretched out to two turns, the filly won an allowance race at Prairie Meadows on May 28 by 17 ¾ lengths while never asked to run.
Crypto Mo won the $50,000 Panthers Stakes over a mile after setting the pace and repelling a bid in the stretch, and entered the G3 Iowa Oaks as the locally-trained favorite but second choice in the wagering.
In her typical front-running fashion, Crypto Mo took charge soon after the start and posted fractions of :24.37 for the quarter mile, :48.55 for a half mile and 1:13.05 for six furlongs. Leading by two lengths in the early stretch, she maintained her advantage to the finish, easily besting favorite Imonra by two lengths.
“She quickly became one of my top 10 favorite horses,” Murphy said. “Obviously the good ones are fun to ride, but she really had a wonderful personality as well, so it's always sad to lose those kinds. I hope she really continues to do well with the new connections.”
Reflecting on the milestone win, Murphy said she never would have imagined achieving it when she was growing up. As one of five children being raised by a single mother who was a schoolteacher, Murphy had no access to horse racing in her youth. There were a few backyard horses, so she was familiar with the basic care and riding skills, but riding never struck her as a viable career option.
It wasn't until college, working through an animal science degree on a pre-veterinary track, that Murphy connected with friends who worked with racehorses.
“I just wanted to exercise the horses because I liked riding,” Murphy said. “They started suggesting that I could be a jockey, and I'd never even considered it. I thought I was too tall at 5' 6”!”
Murphy finished her undergraduate degree, but her career as a jockey took off shortly thereafter. She won her first race in late 1987, and Murphy is also credited with winning the first race ever held at Prairie Meadows, on March 1, 1989, aboard Holmish in a race for $2,300 claimers. At the time, she rode as Cindy Springman and later she rode as Cindy Noll.
She met her husband at the Iowa track in 2001. Travis' mother was riding Quarter Horse races, so Murphy met her in the jockey's room.
“She said, 'I really need to find a good woman for my son,'” Murphy recalled. “I sat there for a moment, then I said, 'Well, what does he look like?' She laughed and told me he'd be in the paddock for the next race.”
The couple has been together ever since, and plan to continue training and raising horses as they ease toward “retirement.” They have their first crop of foals expected at home in Oklahoma in 2024, and will likely continue to purchase a few young horses at the sales to bolster their training program.
Murphy's three grown children are not especially interested in racing, and though her niece may have been “bitten” by the horse bug, the grandchildren are primarily interested in soccer. Murphy hopes to be able to attend more of their games, as well as her youngest son's track meets, as her riding career continues to wind down.
“It's been a fun, exciting career,” she said. “I've had a lot of adventures. A lot of people would have quit way before I did.
“I'm still a very competitive person, though, and I like the adrenaline rush. I've actually been putting a lot of miles on the bicycle, and I joked with the kids that I'm training myself for a bicycle race! I'm gonna find one and win it, just you wait.”
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