St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1890-09-01

- 49,
toned at length.
I'VE have discovered that Murphy
was not drugged," said MIR. Withers.
I'VE have made a searching investiga-
ton aud we have discovered that all
Murphy had to drink while he was on
this track was one bottle of Apollinaris
and one bottle of ginger ale. We ex
amined the waiter who served him and
the restaurant man who sold ii. The
bottles were not drugged unless they
were drugged in Belfast, or wherever
they were put up, for they were not
opened until they were in Murphy'S
presence.
Nov as to the drunkenness. Murphy
says he drank several milk punches at
home before he came over to the track.
He did not feel the effects of them, how
ever, and says he was not in the least
intoxicated. After he came here he
drank bottle of Apollinaris and bot
tie of ginger ale. This is all he did
drink, and whatever his condition was
it was brought about by the mixture of
those drinks. My opinion is that in his
reduced condition all this mixture
would affect him. | am thoroughly
convinced that he had no wine here
and that there is nothing whatever in
the drug theory" Mr.. WitherS declined
to say what the committee would do
with Murphy, but if it tentertain sthe
same views as he does Murphy will be
reinstated to-day.
81 am of the opinion that Murphy's
condition could easily have been
brought about by such mixture of
drinks as he had," said David Pulslfer,
owner of Tenny, and a man of wide eX-
perience in all matters relating to jock
eys. IF you consider his weakened
condition and then think of what he
drank it will make his story seem alto
gether plausible"
81 have known him since he was a
child" said Bookmaker Cheppu, ''and l
am just as sorry for him as if it had hap
pened to myself. Isaac Murphy is one
of our greatest jockeys, and it is pity
that his career should end in this way"
1t is about sixteen years ago that
Isaac Murphy, then a lad of fourteen,
began his career in the saddle. His
mother was slave belonging to Hunt
Reynolds, and Isaac owes his good man
ners and his success in life to Mrs.
Reynolds careful instruction. The
men whose MT IN ,ries go back to the
days when two-mile heat races were
being run, recall the slender lad with
face like carved mahogany who rode
Bob WoOley to victory on the old Nash
vile track. 1t was in two-mile heat
race. and the boy rode so well that he
leaDed at once into popularity. This
was Isaac Murphy's first notable vic
tory. His has been brilliant record
since that time. In many famous race
has Murphy carried the winner past the
judges while thousands i'll the grand
stand cheered themselves hoarse. He
is master in the saddle. Never be-
fore on the American turf was there a
jockey whose judgement of pace was so
good.
81 need no watch when Isaac is up"
said old Eli Jorden, trainer for Hunt
Reynolds. tine boy can tell pace bet
ter than the watch.''
His fame increased year by year. and
when the turf grew so that the old-fash-
toned stables like the Fleetwood be-
came too small to pay the great price
Murphy's services were worth, he en-
gagged himself to Millionaire Lucky"
Baldwin. He rode all of Baidwin's
famous horses from Mollie Mccarthy to
Los Angeles. and it is matter of his
tory how well he rode them. Before
Murphy signed his contract with Bald
win he inserted in it a clause that when
ever Mrs. Reynolds wanted him to ride
one of the Fleetwood horses he would
ut dllOWGu W lluO. l1V ioo ii'tu eilio
same proviso i'll all his other contracts.
After he left Baldwin, Murphy rode for
Ed Corrigan, but he did not like Cor
rigan'S methods. and LETT him. Since
then he has been riding for Mr.. Haggin.
During all these years Isaac Murphy
was the model jockey. He was never
in the paddock except when he was
preparing to ride. He had no race
track associates, he declined the friend
ship of the bOokmakers, and was never
known to gamble. He was courteous to
every one, and when he left the race
track he went home. 1t became a
proverb among racing men ''as honest a
jockey a Isaac Murphy" and to all
other good qualities was added in
tegrity.
AS the years went by Murphy began
to accumulate money. He first bought
himself handsome home i'll Lexing-
ton, KY, and then put his money into
other property. He now OWNS nearly
an entire block in Lexington, and has
other property in Central Kentucky.
He is worth perhaps 100000. He mar
ried one of his own race several years
ago, and is a good husband. He rode
Proctor Knott III the Omnibus stakes at
Monmouth last year, and MIR. Scoggan,
Proctor Knott'S owner. openly charged
him with being drunk. Murphy eX-
planned to his friends at the time that
he was constantly troubled with faint
ness caused by reducing. His mother
weighs nearly two hundred and fifty
pounds, and all his family are big peo-
pie. He said the family tendency was
strongly marked in him, and that he
became so exhausted from training
down that he had to resort to some kind
of stimulant. Since then there have
been lntimations that he was drinking
too much, but they have not been gen.
orally credited.
Among the great horses Murphy has
ridden have been Salvador, Kingston,
Fordham, Hanover, Proctor Knott,
Falsetto, Buchanan-in fact, there is
hardly horse of the first class that has
appeared during the past ten years that
he has not guided to victory.
1t is universally believed by those
who watched Tuesdays race that Fir
emf could have won if she had been
properly ridden, as FirenZi was the hot
favorite, not only at Monmouth Park,
but in pool rooms all over the country.
1t is hard to estimate how much Muir
phys riding cost betting men. In an
ordinary race bookmaker will stand
to lose $1,000 on single horse. AS
there are about ninety bOOkmakerS,
this would make S1S0.000 in the most
commonplace selling race, where the
masses of the public are not interested.
In FirenZi'S race the public were deeply
interested, and they probably bet $780,
600 Tuesday at Monmouth Park alone.
In addition to this there are score of
pool rooms in New York. Chicago,
Louisville, st. Louis, Covington, Albany,
Philadelphia, Boston, San Francisco
and other cities. These rooms will bet
almost as much as the bookmakers at
Monmouth. There are probably $50 of
them, all told, and it is low estimate
to put the money they took in from the
public at $3.50, 900. The total amount of
money lost on Firenzi could not have
been far from 100000.