Isaac Burns Murphy

Isaac Burns Murphy was an American Thoroughbred jockey, born into slavery on 6 January 1861 in Clark County, Kentucky, and raised in Lexington under the guidance of the horse trainer Eli Jordan. He began riding for the Williams and Owings stables in 1875 at the age of fourteen and became one of the highest paid athletes of his day and among the most famous black men in America. He rode in eleven Kentucky Derbies and won three, on Buchanan in 1884, Riley in 1890 and Kingman in 1891, and in 1884 he won the Kentucky Derby, the Kentucky Oaks and the Clark Handicap in the same year. His 1890 match race on Salvator against Tenny at Sheepshead Bay is credited with the first photo finish. He was the first jockey inducted into the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame in 1955.