Rensselaer Standard, Volume 1, Number 15, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 September 1879 — The Best American Jockey. [ARTICLE]

The Best American Jockey.

New York Time*. Who is the best jockev in America? Many of us know that Fred Archer is he most successful one in England, and has been for many years past. In 1878 be won 229 races,.out of 619 in which he rode. This was the largest number of races ever won by a jockey in a single season, being in excess of the total attained by Archer in 1877, when he won 218 races, or In 1876, when he was successful 207 times. This year, up to August Ist, he had won 106 races, in a total of 313 mounts—or an average of, say* ope-third. The English jockey next fa Archer this year is T. Cannon, who has won 58 out of a total of 182 mounts—an average of a little more than one-quarter. Then comes Constable, C. W. Ford ham, and so on down the list. The appreciation of a finely ridden race is no longer confined, in this country, to a few discriminating connoisseurs, hailing chiefly from the Southern States, since the passions of Americans for the turf was never keener or more wide-spread than at the present day. For his individual victory over Mr. Keene, it is pretty certain that Mr. Reynolds is as much indebted to the superlative horsemanship of the colored jockey, Murphy, as he is to his great colt, Falsetto. We are not going beyond bounds when we say that, judged from the records alone, Murphy is one of the best, if not the beet jockey on the American turf today, and he is no doubt fully the equal of young Archer, who for five seasons has led the list in England. Murphy’s riding in the Travers Stakes race, July 18, and in the Kenner Stakes race, Aug. 12, were the finest exhibitions of skill in the saddle that have been seen in this country in many years. Murphy has a steady hand, a quick eye, a cool head, and a bold heart—four qualifications absolutely necessary to the success of every jockey. That he is very observant during the progress of a race, and is quick to perceive weak points of an adversary and prompt to take advantage of them, was signally illustrated in the run for the Travers Stakes. Asked soon after the race why he went up to Harold and Jericho at the half mile, only to fall away aga’n, he replied: “Well, I did not care for Jericho, but, while I thought Spendthrift was the dangerous horse, I wanted to go up to Harold to see how he felt; so 1 tapped Falsetto with the spur one time, went up to them, felt of Harold, found him sprawling over the course, and saw he was out of tlie race, and I fell back to keep Feakes from thinking I was at all dangerous.” He was then asked how he happened to get between Harold and the pole on the turn. “I didn’t intend to go up on the turn,” was (he reply, “but when we started toward the stretch Harold was tired and unsteady, and he leaned away from the pole and gave me room to go In. I thought it better to run for the position than have to run around him, so I jumped at the chance, and went up between him and the rail. I steadied my horse here a moment to compel Harold to cover more ground on the tu;n, and beat him good, for he was very tired, and just before we got to the stretch I left him and went ofTafter Spendthrift.” No explanation could be better than that. Murphy has already had thirty-seven mounts this year, and has won twenty-five, besides riding a dead heat, and this is a much better average than any English jockey can show.