Keeneland Library Lecture Series Returns

Edited Press Release

Keeneland's popular Library Lecture Series resumes in May with the first of four public events that celebrate recently published works about Thoroughbred racing whose authors conducted research at Keeneland Library.

Tickets are $20 per event and will go on sale at 9 a.m., Friday, Apr. 21 at Keeneland.com/library. Proceeds from these ticketed events will benefit the Keeneland Library Foundation, which funds Library preservation, education, outreach and access efforts.

The first two installments of the Library Lecture Series will feature books related to the Library's current exhibit, The Heart of the Turf: Racing's Black Pioneers:

• May 11–Katherine Mooney will discuss Isaac Murphy: The Rise and Fall of a Black Jockey
• June 22–Mark Shrager will talk about The First Kentucky Derby: Thirteen Black Jockeys, One Shady Owner, and the Little Red Horse That Wasn't Supposed to Win

The Heart of the Turf: Racing's Black Pioneers offers a deep exploration into the lives of African Americans in racing and their contributions to the Thoroughbred industry. The exhibit, which is free and open to the public, runs through August.

The Library Lecture Series continues with two events in late August and September:

• Aug. 24–Jennifer Kelly will discuss The Foxes of Belair: Gallant Fox, Omaha, and the Quest for the Triple Crown
• Sept. 28–Patricia McQueen will review Secretariat's Legacy: The Sons, Daughters and Descendants Who Keep His Legacy Alive

All programs will be held at the Library from 6:30-8:30 p.m. ET.

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Mediums Evoke The Jockey’s Fight To Ride

What does the most recognizable jockey of the nineteenth century have in common with a young rider from the 1970s-turned-modern-day playwright? This seemingly disparate pair might be divided by over a century along the continuum, but their experiences, told in a fresh biographical treatment of Isaac Murphy by historian Katherine C. Mooney and through Robert Montano's self-penned and deeply-personal play, have much to tell us about the perilously-seated life in the irons.

What they both encountered is particularly instructive for us, especially after the sudden and tragic losses of jockeys Alex Canchari a few weeks ago and Avery Whisman in early January. Their deaths serve as a living reminder about the fragile and destructive nature of inner pain. As mourning for the 29-year-old Canchari and 23-year-old Whisman takes its course, perhaps what's helpful at this point is to try and take a step towards making sense of it all. By no means does that guarantee a panacea, but what we do know is that different mediums can help us digest, reflect, learn and process.

 

Murphy's Weight

First, Mooney's forthcoming monograph entitled, Isaac Murphy: The Rise and Fall of a Black Jockey published by Yale University's Black Lives series, covers fresh ground concerning the life of a rider who transcended race in Jim Crow America as he won impressively against white jockeys at racetracks from New York to Kentucky to California in the 1880s and into the 90s. As Mooney so eloquently and sadly described in her excellent Race Horse Men: How Slavery and Freedom Were Made at the Racetrack (2014), Black horsemen were driven from the sport as new laws were passed affirming the power of white rule. They never returned, but to this day, they have not been forgotten. If you have not read it and you love this sport, you are missing something.

Isaac Murphy: The Rise and Fall of a Black Jockey by Katherine C. Mooney | Yale University Press

This time the author focuses her attention on Murphy, a celebrated athlete who as a household name, inspired people from different racial and socio-economic backgrounds to root for him. That was the public form of his persona, the one where his ability to effectively cross the color line was based in what appeared to be a bottomless pit filled with drive and determination as he won. With a come-from-the-clouds riding style, which reserved his mount's strength until the last possible moment, Murphy's final approach thrilled the masses.

Mooney also gives a window into the private person who rarely gave interviews or left much of a record concerning his health. That might be just as instructive because throughout his life aboard some of the best Thoroughbreds in North America, he continually battled “making weight.”

Tenny with jockey Isaac Murphy | Keeneland Library

It took its toll.

Not just a seasonal rider, Murphy traversed the country working as often as he could under contract for a specific owner, supplemented by freelancing. Though he garnered what today would be the equivalent to million-dollar earnings, he continually scrambled throughout his riding days to go from 140 pounds all the way down to a dangerously low 110.

Mooney tells us, despite his successes, the regularly mentioned three Derby wins stat, et cetera, that Murphy was plagued later in his career by innuendo that he rode under the influence of alcohol. Racing in the 1890 running of New Jersey's own Monmouth Handicap aboard the seasoned mare Firenze as the favorite at 6-5, the pair ended up last with the jockey falling off after he crossed the wire. Shock and awe fell over the capacity crowd and in a subsequent hearing, Murphy explained that he had skipped breakfast that morning, drinking a few milk punches, regularly understood to be medicinal during the age. Later that day, with his wife by his side in the grandstand, he got down ginger ale and mineral water, in what was hardly the stuff for a balanced diet.

Author Katherine Mooney | Christopher T. Martin

Despite his impressive horsemanship, just to get into the saddle took a monumental effort to fight time and his own metabolic rate. Murphy had the desire and knew that back home in Lexington, Kentucky, his family was relying on him to provide. In the end, it was heart failure that ended his life at the age of 35-years-old. The demands of the profession exacted a terrible price. As Mooney prophetically explains, “Jockeys were ultimately dependent on the people that employed them.”

Montano's Stage

Like Isaac Murphy, Robert Montano was born for a stage. As a dancer and actor from the playhouse to the screen, he's worked with the likes of Chita Rivera to Mark Wahlberg. Growing up in Hempstead, New York in the 1970s with parents who dared their kids to dream, one afternoon his mother took the 12-year-old to Belmont Park. She told her son they were there to “pick out tiles for the kitchen floor,” code for a hopeful wagering result. Montano was captivated by the pomp and circumstance. Immediately, seeing the reverence held for the jockey colony, he was hooked.

“Working and learning from those professionals had such an impact on me, and their toughness and discipline set me on a path I am still on today,” he said. “Robert Pineda taught me about balance in the saddle and he really took me under his wing as a teenager, giving me a shot to ride.”

Robert Montano working a horse as an exercise rider | Robert Montano

Montano's ticket to the backside was a neighbor and his wife who both worked at nearby Belmont Park. They got him a job cutting carrots, which is where everyone begins. Eventually, he graduated to exercising riding there and at nearby Aqueduct Racetrack, but the life that was running concurrently with his high school days was anything but normal.

Like every budding apprentice, the fresh-faced young man agonized over his weight. His commitment pushed him to do endless laps around his neighborhood, while later he sweated in the local YMCA sauna clothed in jackets and sweaters, as burly guys looked on in astonishment. Still, he dreamed about donning silks that would make him a full-fledged member of the New York racing colony.

Just like the professional dancer he would become, health became an all-encompassing focal point for Montano. He was tempted though by the darker side of losing weight as he sought out the “Doc” who saw patients near the local Argo Theater. Appetite suppressants were downed and when his art professor father found out, he told his son, “No more, this is not how to pursue your dreams.”

With Pineda serving as mentor, he finally got his first mount in an actual race at the ripe age of 16. It was March 2, 1977. But there was a problem. That morning at Belmont he fell off a horse during training and badly bruised his ribs. At the Emergency Room, he begged the attending physician to patch him up, and pleaded his case with his parents who wore worried looks. Put back together and heavily bandaged, he made it in time for the race, finishing last. “Despite some serious pain, that was a huge moment for me and I loved every minute of it,” he said.

Robert Montano heads to the post | Robert Montano

Montano only rode six other times, never in-the-money, and though time and genetics were against him, those experiences put him on another track. At the age of 20, he earned a scholarship at New York's Adelphi University to enter the world of dance and theater, another place where showmanship is held in high-esteem.

As his new career blossomed, he came across a director who asked him about his first love. “The racetrack,” he said, without hesitation. “You should write something about that experience,” the director told him. So, after years of writing and delving into feelings that he had not touched since those early days, he did.

Robert Montano on the stage at Adelphi University | Robert Montano

This week on the campus of Kean University in Hillside, New Jersey, Montano's SMALL, which premiered at the Penguin Rep Theatre in Stony Point, New York last year, will take the stage. Performing 24 different parts, he will morph and change into the characters that surrounded his life as he pointed towards adulthood. As he says, “SMALL is about my duty to give the audience an authenticity and it is the chance to honor those that are associated with this great sport.”

With a title that is purposely capitalized, Montano's play examines his personal struggles to stay small, as he fought addiction and to find his place in the world. Now a performer of a different sort, he lends his own perspective from the saddle in the form a play. Using the visceral experiences of his youth, SMALL has the opportunity to loom large.

The Fight to Ride

Whether jockeys ride seven races or 7,000, they are bound by the pursuit of a profession that demands abject discipline. While the job offered the opportunity to stoke pure unadulterated talent, both Katherine Mooney's biography of Isaac Murphy and Robert Montano's SMALL, suggest how the challenges aboard a horse are balanced by their love of the racetrack. Lest we forget, sadly Alex Canchari and Avery Whisman's lives ended pursuing passions while trying to cope with inner pain. As those in the irons pass into our memories, we would do well to remember that their struggles are real and not the stuff of fiction. Both of these mediums might be just what we need at this juncture, as they suggest that across a swath of time that the names may change, but what Montano so aptly calls, “The fight to ride,” remains.

Isaac Murphy: The Rise and Fall of a Black Jockey by Katherine Mooney, Yale University Press, 177 pages, photos, appendix, glossary, May 2023.

SMALL by Robert Montano, co-presented by Premiere Stages and Kean Stage, directed by Jessi D. Hill, Saturday, March 18 at Kean University's Enlow Recital Hall, 215 North Avenue, Hillside, NJ 07205.

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Lone Rock Surges Home For Dominant Victory In Isaac Murphy Marathon

Flying P Stable's Lone Rock surged past defending champion Ry's the Guy at the three-sixteenths pole en route to a 3 ¾-length victory in the third running of the $128,000 Isaac Murphy Marathon Overnight Stakes for 4-year-olds and up Tuesday afternoon at Churchill Downs.

Trained by Robertino Diodoro and ridden by Ramon Vazquez, Lone Rock covered the 1 ½ miles on a fast main track in 2:30.52.

Dack Janiel's set the pace, covering the mile in 1:38.90 and maintained the lead until the far turn when Ry's the Guy moved to the front with Lone Rock right behind him. The top two hit the top of the stretch together with Lone Rock going the better of the two and gradually pulling away.

The victory was worth $78,684 and increased Lone Rock's career bankroll to $528.921 with a record of 32-10-3-2. Lone Rock is a 6-year-old Kentucky-bred gelded son of Majestic Warrior out of the Hard Spun mare Ruby Lips.

Favored in the field of seven, Lone Rock returned $3.80, $2.60 and $2.40. Ry's the Guy, ridden by Chris Landeros, returned $4.20 and $3.40 with Portos finishing third under Tyler Gaffalione and paying $3.20 to show.

You're to Blame finished fourth, followed in order by Plus Que Parfait, Dack Janiel's and Jumper.

RAMON VAZQUEZ (Jockey, Lone Rock, winner) – “I got to know him a little last time and I wanted to stay off the horse on the lead in second but in that situation I had to ease back a little bit. I had some traffic in front of me so I had to ease him back. When I hit the far turn and had a lot of horse I knew we would be tough. To win a stakes here Kentucky Derby Week is incredible. That's why we do this, so I'm just really fortunate. It's an amazing feeling.”

ROBERTINO DIODORO (Trainer, Lone Rock, winner) – “A lot of horses can't go that far but he's a pro. He loves to train. The further he trains, the better he gets. He was so relaxed compared to many of those horses and that's what you need when you're going that distance.”

CHRIS LANDEROS (Jockey, Ry's the Guy, runner-up) – “He gave it a good try but he got real tired on me.”

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Producers Unveil Plans for `Photo Finish’

Leon Nichols, Calvin Davis and affiliates of the Project to Preserve African-American Turf History are seeking additional backing to bring the story of the 1890 Isaac Murphy-Snapper Garrison match race aboard Salvator and Tenny at Sheepshead Bay Park. The event, held after Murphy and Salvator defeated Garrison and Tenny in the Suburban earlier in the year, was billed by press at the time as a race between “Black and white.”

PPAATH was the subject of a Katie Ritz feature in the TDN in 2020. The nonprofit's founder and co-founder, Nichols and Davis, are working on their script alongside producer James Walton, and say their film is poised to be the first in U.S. filmmaking history led by a Black production team and the first to capture the contributions made and the conflicts faced by Black jockeys beginning in the late 19th Century.

Their story traces the life of Murphy, a legendary jockey and the first-ever inductee into the National Museum of Racing Hall of Fame, and says the group, “illuminates and bridges persistent racial divides.”

African American jockeys held places of prominence across the Kentucky Derby's first 27 years, said Chris Goodlett, Dir. of Curitorial & Educational Affairs at the Kentucky Derby Museum. But by the 20th Century, he said, institutional racism and segregation had taken hold.

In June 1890, amid intense racial and political unrest, Murphy was the central figure in the match race, after the owner of Tenny demanded a rematch after his loss in the Suburban.

“With `white' and `colored' signs popping up in response to Jim Crow laws,” said a release from PPAATH, “all eyes were on Murphy and his rival, Ed `Snapper' Garrison. One sealed America's fate for generations to come in a photo-finish race that was dubbed `the greatest in the history of thoroughbred racing' by the New York Times.”

“There's a lot to unpack here,” said Walton. “In 1890, Jim Crow legislation struck a severe blow to horseracing and forced out the clear majority: Black jockeys. One after another, their obituaries then piled up. High-profile Blacks' ability to do what they loved was snatched away as mobs of emboldened whites pushed for segregated tracks. Soup Perkins, who'd won the Kentucky Derby at age 15, drank himself to death by age 31. Tommy Britton committed suicide by swallowing acid. Albert Isom publicly shot himself in the head.”

“The discrimination they faced in everyday life they also faced on the racetrack–confronted with an ideology that tore apart our nation and an entire industry,” said Nichols. “'PHOTO FINISH: The Race of the Century' celebrates one man's ability to beat the odds. Before Jordon, Ali and Owens, there was Isaac Burns Murphy. He was a hero in the eyes of Blacks and unsympathetic whites knew that. He achieved millionaire status and acclaim at a time when others feared for their safety. Yet, here we are today, in 2021…still fearful.”

PPAATH is seeking backers and tax incentives in various U.S. filmmaking hub zones in order to develop a series of films which showcase Black jockeys and pay homage to courageous acts which have gone unrecognized for more than a century. Learn more at PPAATH.org.

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