Nevertheless, the race started, and Isaac and Firenzi got away first, followed by E. J. Baldwin's Los Angeles. The pace was fast as the horses pounded past the grandstand to the cheers of the spectators. After the field had gone only a quarter mile, Murphy seemed to be slowing Firenzi on purpose, allowing the other horses to pass as he attempted to maintain some control over the spirited horse, pulling her head left and right, clinging to the saddle and trying unsuccessfully to guide her movements. Rather than risk death if he fell off his horse in the path of the thundering pack, the quick-thinking Murphy pulled Firenzi to the rear, where he could try to gather his wits and finish the race that had already been lost.
At the finish, the long shot Tea Tray outsprinted Rhono and Lavinia Belle to win the Monmouth Handicap. Still clinging to Firenzi, Isaac passed the judges' stand, traveled another hundred yards, and then fell into a heap on the ground. Mr. Caldwell's assistant, “Polo Jim,” caught Firenzi and helped Isaac back into the saddle. According to the New York Times, the “helpless jockey was assisted into the saddle and managed to keep his seat until the paddock was reached. Then he forgot to ask the permission of the judge to dismount, and his friends had to put him on Firenzi's back again. He was then conducted to the scale and weighed in, after which he was almost carried to the jockeys' room” by his valet and his friends.61 As quickly as possible, Isaac was hurried away from Monmouth Park.
After Murphy left the scene, the questions began to hum loudly. Was this the same Isaac Murphy who had weighed in only fifteen minutes prior to the start of the race, seemingly sober and in complete control? Secretary Crickmore had even spoken with Murphy and surely would have noticed if he had been drinking. Did Murphy get drunk in the jockeys' dressing room? If so, why hadn't the attendant reported him to the judges? What about Matt Byrnes? He had seen Murphy in the paddock area and had no reason to believe the race was in jeopardy because of Isaac's state; in fact, Byrnes had bet $50,000 on Firenzi to win. All was lost, including a reputation that had been built over a stellar career.
The Executive Committee, led by Mr. Withers, suspended Murphy, pending an investigation. Withers conducted interviews with a multitude of people who had come into contact with Murphy, as well as with Isaac himself the day after the incident. Isaac claimed that he must have been drugged because he did not drink any alcohol before the race; he had consumed only water and ginger ale from the grandstand café. He could recall everything that had occurred before the start of the race, including his conversation with Crickmore. He told Withers his “head swam and hummed and felt like a vacuum from the moment…he dismounted at the starting post to have his saddle adjusted till he passed the scales after the race.” Isaac also defended himself against rumors that he was the “champagne jockey” and that his insatiable thirst for the expensive beverage had been the cause of his behavior during the Monmouth Handicap. “No one that knows me,” Murphy exclaimed, “would charge me with drinking champagne. I don't drink it because I don't like it.”62
After considering all the facts and listening to all the parties involved, Withers and the Executive Committee concluded that Murphy had not been drunk. “The evidence is conclusive,” he stated, “that [Murphy] drank no intoxicating liquor while here.” As to the rumor that Isaac had been drugged, Withers would only say that he took “no stock in that” theory. He explained that Murphy “drank his milk punches at home, and the Apollinaris and ginger ale that he drank here were in sealed bottles, opened before his eyes. If that ginger ale was drugged, it was drugged in Belfast.”63 Several newspapers attributed Murphy's behavior to his supposed intoxication at the clambake two days before the race. The New York Times claimed he had overindulged in “champagne, a habit which has in the past gotten the better of him, but never to lead to quite so sad an exhibition of himself as he made at the track yesterday.”64 The Chicago Horseman reported that Murphy “disgraced himself in the most shameful manner…. He was so drunk that he reeled and rolled in the saddle. He jerked Firenzi all about the track in this wild lurching and tumbling about on her back, ruined all of her chances of winning or getting a place.”65 The question is, what really happened? And if someone did drug Isaac, why?
Rumors spread that bookmakers who had inside knowledge about the outcome of the race and had taken bets on Firenzi at 6:5 and even odds had walked away with thousands. The Times Picayune reported that several well-known plungers “won big money on Tea Tray,”66 including Dave Johnson, who was “credited with winning $20,000 on the race.”67 If a gambling ring wanted to change the outcome of a race without using the traditional means of drugging a horse or paying jockeys to throw the race, drugging the jockey riding the favorite made sense. But there is an alternative theory that is more in line with all the evidence: someone planned to kill Isaac.
In addition to reeling from the effects of some kind of drug, Isaac's equipment had been tampered with. Someone had loosened his saddle after it was placed on Firenzi in the paddock, and someone had administered the drug sometime between the time he left Lucy in the grandstand and the time he mounted his horse in the paddock area before the race. If he had not noticed the loose saddle and adjusted it, who knows what could have happened? Surely he would have fallen from Firenzi at some point in the race, potentially dying from the fall or from being trampled by the other horses. This possibility was never mentioned in the white press.
After the incident at Monmouth Park, the white press continued to make Isaac a pariah. In his defense, the Cleveland Gazette ran the following column:
The greatest of American jockeys has made his greatest mistake, or rather has been caused to do so. The supposition is that something he drank just prior to his mounting Firenzi in the Monmouth handicap at New York City Tuesday was drugged, causing him to reel and roll in the saddle, jerking the Queen of the turf all about the track and causing a sure winner to lose a great race. Neither Salvator nor Tenny were in the race and in consequence Firenzi, with Murphy her rider, was the favorite. Thousands of dollars were placed on her and of course lost. When lifted from the saddle his general appearance, his swollen face, glassy eyes and utter stupefaction, made all firmer in the belief that he had been drugged. The leading New York dailies claim that Jockey Murphy has always possessed a great love for champagne and that some person in whom he had confidence, and who had bet heavily on other horses in the race, took advantage of him, placing a drug in his liquor. He has been suspended pending an investigation. We hope that it will result in his being honorably acquitted, and the punishment of the scoundrel who committed the crime, for we believe that Murphy was drugged. He has ridden too many years and handled too many leading horses to be guilty of making such a blunder. While it is true he has much of this world's goods, we know by long years of experience in the saddle is dearer to him than anything perhaps life.68
On September 6 the Executive Committee of Monmouth Park concluded that Isaac “wasn't and couldn't have been drunk, but suspended him for ‘the condition he was in.’”69 The duration of the suspension was thirty days. To be sure, this outcome did not sit well with Isaac, nor did it sit well with his powerful employers and friends, who vouched for his character and requested a further investigation.
On October 1 a well-rested Isaac returned to the track amid cheers and applause from the spectators attending the first day of races at the New York Jockey Club's fall meeting at Morris Park.70 Riding in the Manhattan Handicap at 119 pounds aboard Haggin's mare Firenzi, Isaac finished second to his friend Anthony Hamilton riding August Belmont's Raceland. The Times Picayune acknowledged the difficulty of returning to peak performance after being “laid on the shelf for a month or more,” which has an effect on an athlete's “muscle agility and mental balance.”71 Unfortunately, during his suspension Isaac remained ill and in bad shape from the effects of his previous stomach problems, compounded by whatever caused his state of disorientation on August 26. Around this time, likely at the suggestion of Thomas Fortune, the Murphys moved to Red Bank, New Jersey, to a cott
age near the Shrewsbury River. It was quiet there, and Isaac could get some well-deserved rest.
On October 9, a little over a week after his return to the saddle, Murphy was stricken with “pneumonia and inflammation of the bowels.”72 He had been on a strict regimen of steam baths and starvation, which caused severe dehydration, in an effort to make the lower weights demanded by Haggin. At one point he thought he was well enough to meet with his employer, but “while in the act of dressing, he suddenly reeled and fell with a crash to the floor.” At first, Lucy believed her husband was dead, as all her attempts to revive him were unsuccessful. Finally, “Dr. Thompson of West Forty-Seventh Street was sent for,” and he determined that the famous jockey was suffering from inward spasms, better known as ulcers.73 After attending to Isaac for close to a week, Dr. Thompson concluded that he had been poisoned. The doctor told the nurse caring for Isaac that he might never fully recover, quite possibly because he was suffering from something internal that could not be treated effectively by nineteenth-century medicine. After a series of treatments, Isaac and Lucy returned to Lexington, where he could convalesce in the quiet of their home and their community.
When the news circulated that Isaac had returned home and was still suffering from the effects of being poisoned in August, Benjamin Bruce of the Live Stock Record called for an investigation into the poisoning, and he suggested that the Monmouth Park Racing Association, and Mr. Withers in particular, make “reparation” to Isaac for the “stigma under which he has suffered since his suspension and disgrace.”74 On November 14 the Philadelphia Inquirer published a special report regarding the investigation:
A secret investigation was instituted and it has resulted in a full confirmation of the poisoning story. From facts gathered at the time and since convincing proofs have been collected that go to show that a conspiracy was formed to down Murphy by several persons whose names are withheld. The certificates of four responsible physicians have been obtained and with them other indisputable evidence, proving beyond a doubt; that poison and not liquor caused Murphy's downfall. This intelligence will create a sensation in turf circles, especially when it is announced that the guilty persons are to be prosecuted. The developments are awaited with eagerness by the public.75
Although the perpetrators were never identified publicly, the inquiry corroborated what Murphy's supporters had maintained all along.
At home in Lexington, a pallid and emaciated Murphy rested. He was still weak from being unable to eat regularly, and his inflamed stomach was kept wrapped with a “wide bandage on it all the time” to prevent excessive swelling; the slightest “jarring” of his body caused considerable pain.76 However, having returned to his comfortable home in Lexington, he was sleeping better at night, likely the result of Dr. Thompson's prescription. Reporters called on the celebrated jockey to inquire about his future in horse racing. Isaac answered, “Unless I get very much better than I am I shall never ride again. Still, I dislike to have the stigma of expulsion resting on me which I feel that I am wholly innocent of being drunk when I rode Firenzi.”77 Although he had fallen from the great steed of celebrity, the question remained: Would he recover?
A Question of Destiny
That one race at Monmouth Park marked a transition for Isaac Murphy. The once flawless professional jockey had become a pariah to whites. Because of his color, white working-class and poor men loathed him; they would neither empathize with the treachery of the situation nor endorse an investigation into the facts. Reaction to the episode at Monmouth Park was a sign of deteriorating race relations throughout American society and the aggressive and often violent denial of opportunities for blacks. African Americans were being deprived of their rights and privileges as citizens of the United States, especially in the South, where the “Afro-American was being disenfranchised by State laws as well as by force, fraud and intimidation,” all in an effort to return blacks to their former state of ignorance and servility.78
For Murphy in particular, and for African Americans in general, the decade would be marked by expulsion, alienation, exclusion, and the increased stigmatization of black masculinity as corrupt and inherently menacing. This would lead to a dramatic increase in the ritual practice of lynching by whites in an effort to rid society of its “bad niggers” and threats to white ideas of social order. Throughout the winter and into the spring, in addition to dealing with the sickness that was eating away at his stomach, Isaac would have to contend with the rumors about his degenerate manly character, which were eating away at his soul. He must have been worried about the effects on his ability to gain employment, and he would discover that he had reason to be concerned. Some of his previous employers, many of whom knew him very well, began to shy away from the talented jockey who once could do no wrong.
Although not fully recovered, Isaac was well enough to travel. In late December he and James Ware, a fellow member of the Lincoln Lodge Masons, ventured to Cincinnati, Ohio, to visit John Thomas, who was probably a Mason as well.79 The purpose of their meeting is unknown, but we can speculate that it had something to do with Isaac's position as one of the senior officers of the lodge: he was the senior warden, and Ware was the senior deputy.80 The men probably attended an official meeting in Cincinnati and were Thomas's guests at his home on Cherry Street. While in Cincinnati, Isaac was no doubt asked about his health and the particulars of the race at Monmouth Park. Based on what we know about Isaac, he likely answered honestly and directly, retelling the story without any fanfare or embellishment. After returning to Lexington, Isaac and Ware would have reported any pertinent information from the Cincinnati meeting to their own lodge members.
At the Masons' lodge, at Pleasant Valley Baptist Church, and elsewhere in the Lexington community, where he was among his peers, Isaac would have felt at home, having no need for the barriers he maintained when engaged with the outside world. Despite the embarrassing and potentially isolating situation, Isaac embraced his community of kinfolk, and they showered him with love and generosity. While he was recovering, well-wishers may have dropped off notes and offered prayers for his speedy recovery. Fans of the great black jockey may have sent telegrams and gifts to help lift his mood. But it is also possible that the prince of jockeys received hate mail from whites who wished his enemies had succeeded in removing him from the racetrack permanently. (The twentieth-century equivalent would be Hank Aaron receiving hate mail for making $100,000 a season playing baseball, leaving some more deserving white boy without a job.) How Isaac handled such criticism is not known, but we can imagine that he dismissed most of it. Locally, of course, Isaac's mentors would have reassured him that they had not lost faith in him; they understood that Isaac's reputation was more important than life itself, and he would seek to right the wrong perpetrated against him. For Isaac, the spring could not come fast enough: he had something to prove.
By the beginning of 1891, despite the obvious disappointments and near tragedy, Isaac had reason to celebrate. On January 6 he turned thirty years old. As part of the birthday celebration, Isaac and Lucy went ice skating. Lucy (who was always a worrier when it came to her husband's health and safety) probably had mixed feelings about this excursion: on the one hand, she wanted Isaac to celebrate his birthday doing something he enjoyed; on the other hand, she was concerned about him going out in the cold, given his recent illness. And, in fact, the ill-advised excursion on the ice sent him back to bed.
Among the Murphys' many friends in Lexington were elder members of the community such as Jordan C. Jackson and his wife Belle and Benjamin and Susan Franklin. Both men were Civil War veterans, and their wives had been significant contributors to the Lexington community. Belle Mitchell Jackson was a teacher and had helped the local churches educate the community's children. Since Isaac had lost both his parents, the Jacksons and the Franklins were like surrogate families and helped him develop a sense of groundedness in Lexington.
Sometime in December Anthony Hamilton announced his engagement to St. Louis na
tive Annie L. Messley, the stepdaughter of Frank Estell, the wealthy and well-known superintendent of the Laclede Building. Isaac and Lucy invited Anthony and his fiancée to Lexington for a reception in their honor. According to the Lexington Transcript, the party at the mansion on East Third Street was the social event of the year:
Saturday, Jan. 14, 1891 at the residence of the premiere jockey, Isaac Murphy, Mr. Anthony Hamilton, the “Black Demon” and his bonny bride, were given one of the grandest receptions that ever came off in Lexington. Dinner was served at 12 o'clock and the luncheon was continued till the large attendance was summoned again to the festive board, when a magnificent repast was discussed to the repletion of all present. Between heats champagne corks were kept flying from parlor to dining room [and the] library in Murphy's private Sanctum till 8 o'clock when the bell ringed to saddle up and come to the post, and when Starter Waxey cried “Go!” the world-renowned Terpsichore Sweepstakes commenced and it was 11:30 when the race was decided. John Clay was judge, Isaac Lewis was timer, and after honest consultation it was decided that Isaac Murphy got to the “wire first” and Anthony Hamilton “got a place.”81
The “delightful all-day shower for the jockey Tony Hamilton and his bride” proved to be the most attractive event in Lexington's black community.82 It is likely that the groom and his hosts invited friends from as far away as California and New York. From the Lexington Herald, we know that jockeys William Walker, Isaac Lewis, and Tom Britton attended with their companions, as did members of Lexington's black society, including members from the Sardis and Lincoln Lodges.
The Prince of Jockeys Page 41
