The Prince of Jockeys

by Pellom McDaniels III

  The resort town was also a haven for an array of working-, middle-, and upper-class blacks. During the antebellum period, free blacks migrated to Saratoga Springs to work for wages as bellhops, waiters, or washerwomen in the hotels and boardinghouses and as trainers, stable boys, grooms, and exercise boys at the track and stables. Blacks were the main source of labor at the United States and Grand Union Hotels and in the town's restaurants; others worked as carriage drivers, transporting resort patrons to the train station or the racecourse or just taking them for a leisurely drive along the expansive avenues. Saratoga provided a significant amount of income for many seasonal workers who lived in New York, Philadelphia, or other nearby locations in the off-season.

  Historian Myra Armstead writes that the postbellum “growth of the black population in Saratoga Springs” was tied to the service industry, but the gambling economy expanded blacks' financial opportunities, allowing them to generate “peripheral income, as proprietors of permissive” black businesses.64 And although African Americans were permitted to ride as jockeys, historians Ed Hotaling and Steven Reiss note that black owners were barred from entering their horses in races, and black spectators were barred from the seating area, probably in the grandstand.65 Armstead suggests that although Saratoga's African American community was transient and relatively small compared with the visiting white clientele, it found a way to partake in the festivities. An article in the July 19, 1865, edition of the New York Times notes that one of the many attractions in Saratoga was a lecture “by an intelligent colored gentleman from Africa in the Baptist Church.”66 The identity of this “intelligent colored gentleman” is unknown, but the account of this particular event in the history of Saratoga's black community is intriguing.

  It is important to note that during this period, tensions between blacks and Irish immigrants and Irish Americans were once again on the rise, particularly with regard to employment opportunities. Not that long ago, New York had been the site of the 1863 draft riots—a response to the Conscription Act.67 Given the country's prevailing racism and economic instability, impoverished Irish and native white men responded violently to the law, which allowed draftees to avoid military service if they hired substitutes or paid $300 to buy their way out. Unwilling to participate in a war to free blacks, who would ultimately compete for and possibly take their jobs, whites lashed out. First they attacked draft offices, but then blacks became the targets of their hatred. Black men, women, and children were tortured, hanged, and burned by mobs of whites of all ethnicities who joined in collective opposition to black suffrage and opportunity. By 1877, the seasonal jobs once reserved for blacks had become appealing to “vast numbers of Catholic Irish immigrants,” who used their whiteness and the specter of violence to oust blacks from these previously undesirable jobs.68 This would happen in other occupations as well, including that of jockey.

  By 1876, under the guise of the Saratoga Racing Association, John Morrissey sought to control horse racing in the East and the gambling activity related to it. Morrissey's strong-arm attempt to restructure racing in New York in favor of Saratoga Springs—that is, to ensure that races at the resort took precedence over all other scheduled meetings—was part business and part vendetta. In 1867 Morrissey had a falling-out with his partners in the luxurious casino at Saratoga, professional gamblers H. P. McGrath of Lexington and John Chamberlain of St. Louis. Shortly afterward, McGrath left New York for Kentucky, and Chamberlain began planning for Monmouth Park at Long Branch, New Jersey.69 It is not clear why the partnership dissolved, but it is possible that McGrath and Chamberlain were willing to fix races by having jockeys pull horses and having betting operators lower the odds to encourage unsuspecting patrons to wager more money. Trusted by the wealthy and well positioned, Morrissey probably asked his partners to leave to protect his distinguished board of directors, and himself, from scandal.

  To guarantee first-rate racing at Saratoga Springs, Morrissey believed they had to ensure the quality of the horses participating. To do so, racing officials decided to penalize stables whose horses had run in races within five days before the Saratoga Springs meeting. For Kentuckians traveling to the East to compete at Monmouth Park, the penalties represented an escalation of political maneuvering by racing officials to seize commercial control of the sport. On June 16 the Kentucky Live Stock Record observed:

  The Monmouth Park races begin on June 30th and to prevent horses from running at Long Branch, the Saratoga Association programme penalizes winners over any other course after June 25th. The penalties range from 5 to 12 pounds. We thought turf interests had received a sufficient backset in New York this year by the suppression of pool selling, without any additional handicapping; but in this it seems we were mistaken. These penalties imposed on winning horses at Long Branch may work injury to that meeting, and while it does, it is certain to injure Saratoga in a like degree. It is a declaration of war against owner and other associations which they may accept to the great injury of both meetings. Penalties like handicaps are not popular with the American racing public, and the best thing Saratoga can do is at once abolish these penalties.70

  The commercialization of racing as an entertainment for the masses, the prevalence of high-stakes gambling, and the New York legislature's banning of pool selling forced many unique aspects of the sport to change.71 Whereas Kentucky turfmen had once been welcomed and had introduced some of the best-bred animals in the country, along with some of the best jockeys, this new era of horse racing was shaped by a politics of the turf that was exceedingly influenced by the wealthy, the politically powerful, and the plungers who wagered fortunes on the outcome of races, many of which they influenced. The eastern racing circuit, with its connections to the nation's wealthiest families, became a haven for horse-racing aficionados from around the country who wanted nothing more than to establish themselves as members of the moneyed elite. Less influential were those interested in the improvement of the breed.

  For Isaac Murphy, the chance to race in the East was both a blessing and a curse. When he arrived in Saratoga Springs, where he stayed and ate, and which individuals he interacted with are not known. What we do know is that his monthlong stay in Saratoga exposed Isaac to African Americans from different backgrounds, professions, and occupations; Spanish-speaking Cuban musicians who moved between the elite white society they played for and the black community they lived in; and the anti-Semitic movement initiated by Henry Hilton, whose “interdiction” of Jews from the Grand Union Hotel was supported by hotel patrons. We also know that Isaac put on one hell of a show in his debut at Saratoga Springs.72

  On July 31, the fifth day of racing, the weather was clear and the track was sound from the steady “drying wind, and a warm sun.”73 Riding the energetic Fair Play, one of the favorites, Isaac was poised to compete against the field of eastern horses and jockeys that included George Lorillard's Lucifer, ridden by Harris; the Dwyer brothers' Vermont, ridden by Sayers; and T. W. Doswell's Rappahannock, ridden by Hughes. After a poor start, Isaac was unable to get a feel for the field and finished an unimpressive fifth. But this was just the first race, and Isaac would have a month to gauge the riding styles of the eastern jockeys and study the temperaments of the different horses.

  The following day the weather was clear and attendance was high. It was a good day for the jockey from Lexington to show what he was capable of. In the third race, a heat race of three-quarters of a mile for a $300 purse, Isaac was once again piloting Fair Play. At the start, D. J. Crouse's Auburn jumped out in front with Isaac right behind, pressing the lead. Miscalculating, Isaac waited too late to make his move and lost the first heat by a length. However, he adjusted his strategy in the final two heats. He allowed Auburn to get away quickly, but at the lower turn and into the straightaway, Isaac leaned forward, signaling to Fair Play to open up, and the horse responded. There was one difference in the final heat: Isaac used the whip just enough to motivate his mount to win convincingly—a rare display of coercion by the
usually cool horse whisperer.74 But Isaac was not yet proven. During the second meeting at Saratoga, from August 5 to 22, he would get closer to perfection.

  Of the six races Isaac started, he won three: twice on Vera Cruz and once on Fair Play. Consistently improving and demonstrating his ability to judge the pace of the field and maintain control of the race, Isaac got his horses to the finish line by the slightest of margins, winning by a head or a nose. On the third day of the second meeting, in a dash race of a mile and three-quarters for a $600 purse, Isaac apparently intimidated the other jockeys from attacking the track and running aggressively. In fact, based on the account in the Kentucky Live Stock Record, the other jockeys seemed to be waiting for Murphy, who provided an excellent start as the pace was slow, steady, and “quite uninteresting.” However, after the first mile the race became a sprint to the finish between Isaac on Vera Cruz and George Barbee on Tom Ochiltree. Not until the end of the race did Isaac let his horse go to the lead, and with the very last jump, Vera Cruz “headed Big Tom” at the finish line.75 The sixteen-year-old master in the saddle had captured the attention of everyone at the Saratoga Springs horse park. He was making a name for himself by beating the best in the East.

  Returning home to Lexington, the conquering hero likely began to prepare for the fall meeting of the Kentucky Association, scheduled to start on September 17 on what could be considered Isaac's home track. In his free time, he likely interacted with various members of the community at church, at the barbershop, or on Vine Street (Lexington's black Main Street), where his accomplishments on the track may have been praised by his admirers. Upon his return home, Isaac probably learned of the movement to leave Lexington for Nicodemus, Kansas, and the role played by the Reverend Morrison M. Bell of Pleasant Green Baptist Church.76 Although the end of Reconstruction marked the end of the era of progress for black-white relations in America, especially in the South, a place like Nicodemus provided hope for a people in search of “racial uplift.”77

  As president of the Nicodemus Colony, Reverend Bell and his officers, which included Isaac Talbott, W. J. Niles, Daniel Clarke, Jerry Lee, William Jones, and Abner Webster, promoted a new beginning for the “colored people” of Lexington. An outgrowth of the movement started by Benjamin “Pap” Singleton, the Nicodemus Colony offered three specific enticements to African Americans who were willing to move to Kansas: access to land and the opportunity to become self-sufficient; escape from the violence of the South and the white men who perpetuated the degradation of blacks; and security for their families, especially their children, whose future looked bleak if they stayed in Kentucky, where their perceived value was based on their usefulness to whites.

  Printed in bold letters across the top of a broadside announcing the migration to Nicodemus was this statement: “All Colored People That Want to Go to Kansas, on September 5th, 1877, Can Do So for $5.00.”78 The officers of the Nicodemus Colony understood the need to convey the seriousness of the venture to the masses, and they printed the following resolutions on the same broadside to clarify the mission and goals of the expedition:

  WHEREAS, We, the colored people of Lexington, Ky., knowing that there is an abundance of choice lands now belonging to the Government, have assembled ourselves together for the purpose of locating on said lands. Therefore,

  BE IT RESOLVED, That we do now organize ourselves into a Colony, as follows:—Any person wishing to become a member of this Colony can do so by paying the sum of one dollar ($1.00), and this money is to be paid by the first of September, 1877, in installments of twenty-five cents at a time, or otherwise as may be desired.

  RESOLVED, That this Colony has agreed to consolidate itself with the Nicodemus Towns, Solomon Valley, Graham County, Kansas, and can only do so by entering the vacant lands now in their midst, which costs $5.00.

  RESOLVED, That this Colony shall consist of seven officers—President, Vice-President, Secretary, Treasurer, and three Trustees. President—M. M. Bell; Vice-President—Isaac Talbott; Secretary—W. J. Niles; Treasurer—Daniel Clarke; Trustees—Jerry Lee, William Jones, and Abner Webster.

  RESOLVED, That this Colony shall have from one to two hundred militia, more or less, as the case may require, to keep peace and order, and any member failing to pay in his dues, as aforesaid, or failing to comply with the above rules in any particular, will not be recognized or protected by the Colony.

  Based on the available evidence, 900 families caught “Kansas fever” and signed up to leave with the expedition.

  On September 6, the Lexington Press reported the mood of the previous day's departure of no more than “two hundred and fifty, men, women, and children” as they boarded train cars heading for Ellis, Kansas, to begin life anew.79 According to historian Nell Irvin Painter, in “September 1877 the second and largest addition, 350 settlers, came to Nicodemus with Reverend M. M. Bell of the Nicodemus Colony, under the aegis of W. R. Hill.80 In March 1878 Hill would bring another group of 150 people from Scott County, Kentucky, to Kansas. Nicodemus represented a new start for blacks in search of land, opportunity, and a sense of freedom not found in the previous places they had called home.

  There is no question that the state of Kentucky in general and the counties surrounding Lexington in particular were not the friendliest of places for African Americans. Between the end of the Civil War and the end of Reconstruction, brutal crimes against blacks, especially lynching, became part of the daily lives of African Americans throughout the state. As historian George Wright asserts, “Although poor, young, uneducated blacks were the primary victims of white violence, no black person within Kentucky was immune from attacks by whites. Furthermore, the entire legal system upheld white violence by refusing to apprehend, charge, and convict white offenders of blacks, thus ensuring that all Afro-Americans were at the mercy of whites.”81 In other words, whites were complicit in denying blacks their humanity through the criminalization and destruction of black life in the Bluegrass. Those who chose to leave Lexington saw no other way to save what mattered most: their lives and the lives of their children.

  Isaac could not have missed the commotion at the train station on the day so many people (called Exodusters) left Lexington, and he probably understood why they left. But if Isaac intended to pursue a career as a professional jockey, he would have to construct his own identity in a way that supported his economic pursuits and protected his psychological need to be recognized as hardworking and productive. He would eventually have to cultivate a persona of masculinity tied to the Victorian ideal espoused by aspiring middle-class professional men of the period. In addition, Isaac would have to demonstrate a nonthreatening attitude that was honest and trustworthy in relation to the white patriarchy and its unyielding need to be appeased.

  In Lexington, amid the sadness and excitement of the departed Exodusters, Isaac still had a job to do, and he showed well at the Kentucky Association's fall meeting. Out of nine starts, he won three: twice on Vera Cruz and once on Alexander Keene Richards's L'Argenteen. Most important, Isaac began riding for the impresario of Fleetwood Stock Farm, J. W. Hunt-Reynolds, piloting Blue Eyes to a third-place finish in the Colt and Filly Stakes. Less than a month later, at the Louisville Jockey Club's track, Isaac demonstrated his ability to be a consistent winner. On October 1, the first day of the fall meeting at Louisville, ninety-eight-pound Isaac rode Vera Cruz to victory in his first major stakes race—the St. Leger. Later, he would say of this particular victory, “I have often thought of that day. Success made me very happy.”82 In the very next race he won on L'Argenteen, finishing cleanly and coming away with a “big cantor by a length.”83 Over the seven-day period, Isaac won five of the seven races he started, including the Galt House Stakes for three-year-olds on Abe Buford's Lizzie Whipps. In his final race of the season, at the Maryland Association meeting in Baltimore, he won again on Vera Cruz in the Breckinridge Stakes for three-year-olds; the competition from the East including August Belmont's Susquehanna and David McDaniel's two entries, St. James
and Major Barker. A description of the race in the Kentucky Live Stock Record paints a picture of how Isaac awed spectators with his breathtaking finishes:

  When the flag fell Major Barker took the lead, Susquehanna second, Vera Cruz third, St. James fourth, Wash Booth fifth and Oriole sixth. Before reaching the quarter St. James was in the lead some six lengths, Wash Booth second, Oriole third, Vera Cruz fourth, Major Barker fifth and Susquehanna sixth. St. James opened a gap of twenty lengths in front of Oriole, who was lapped by Vera Cruz. No change at the three-quarter pole, and as they came back to the stand St. James was ten lengths in front of Vera Cruz second, Wash Booth third, Oriole fourth, Susquehanna fifth and Major Barker sixth. Vera Cruz gradually closed the gap on St. James, and by the time they had reached the lower turn he was within a length, and as they entered the homestretch he showed a length in front, and galloping along won the race in a canter by two lengths in front of Wash Booth third, Oriole a bad fourth, Susquehanna fifth, Major Barker sixth.84

  That the little jockey from Lexington had become a master of the turf was obvious to anyone paying attention. Rather than a struggle to make his horse work beyond its natural capabilities, Isaac's performance as a jockey was artistry, as he coaxed his mount to move at the pace required. For Isaac, riding had become as natural as breathing.

  Seasons of Death and Renewal

  After his success in 1877, Isaac was in for some changes. Sometime between the beginning of the off-season and January 1878, Isaac's mentor and father figure, Eli Jordan, left the Williams stable and became head trainer at the Hunt-Reynolds stable. One possible clue to the reason for the parting of ways was the death of Williams's “valuable and richly bred young stallion Creedmoor” on November 6, 1877. Foaled in 1873, the chestnut colt, a son of Asteroid, stood sixteen hands high, “had excellent legs, broad, flat knees with immense bone and great substance. His racing career had been extremely good,” so his premature death due to colic must have been a blow to Williams.85 Whether Jordan was directly responsible for Creedmoor's death through his own negligence, or whether it was the fault of an assistant trainer, groom, or stable boy assigned to care for the four-year-old, Jordan was the trainer on record, so ultimately he was responsible and may have been fired. For the first time since he began working as a stable boy, Isaac was without Jordan. In the long run, this separation would prove invaluable to his development as both a jockey and an individual.