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By Wandering Eyes · Posted
Brad Cox is confident that First Mission and Hit Show are ready to give their best efforts June 28 in the $1 million Stephen Foster Stakes (G1) at Churchill Downs, part of the Breeders' Cup Challenge Series.View the full article -
By Wandering Eyes · Posted
The New York Racing Association and the New York State Gaming Commission have placed a group of horses located in Barn 66 at Saratoga Race Course under a 14-day quarantine due to a positive case of strangles.View the full article -
By Wandering Eyes · Posted
Brant Dunshea, acting CEO of the British Horseracing Authority, has been elected vice chair of the European and Mediterranean Horseracing Authority.View the full article -
By Wandering Eyes · Posted
The highly regarded Camino Real Turf Course at Santa Anita Park is currently undergoing its annual renovation after performing splendidly during the most recent Classic and Hollywood meets.View the full article -
By Wandering Eyes · Posted
The racing Gods looked down and smiled on us at Royal Ascot last week in delivering one of the greatest results imaginable when Joe Murphy and his son – also Joe – landed a breakthrough Group 1 triumph in the Coronation Stakes with Cercene. It was a triumph for the grass roots operators and one that many thought was impossible in this day and age. The Murphys run a high-class but humble outfit on the outskirts of Fethard in County Tipperary. Success over the might of Francis Graffard and Aidan O'Brien with their diminutive daughter of Australia, who measures a little over 15hh with shoes on, is nearly too perfect an embodiment of what has been achieved by this family-run stable. And it doesn't take long to figure out what the whole thing means to them here. “It's only soaking in now,” says Joe snr, before the kettle has even reached boiling point. “I was going through a phase recently, which I can only presume has something to do with my age. I'm 70 now and I was thinking, 'F*** it, I'm after living my life and I've nothing to show for it.' “But now, it feels like it has all been worthwhile. Look at all the good horsemen in the country who work as hard as us but might never get a day like what we experienced last week. All the hard work means something now. I feel like I finally have something to show for it all.” And nobody deserved that Group 1 triumph more than Murphy. Along with Joe jnr, the pair have gone out and sourced the majority of the stable's big-race winners through their own eyes and pockets. Think Euphrasia (Windsor Knot), Swamp Fox (Windsor Knot), Gustavus Weston (Equiano) and Lord Massusus (Markaz) as similarly well-sourced stock that flew the flag with distinction for the Murphys. A €50,000 purchase at the 2023 Tattersalls Ireland September Yearling Sale, Cercene is another to add to that list. “We go against fashion and try to find value,” jnr says of the approach to shopping at the sales. “We're not too interested in stallions. It's all about the dam's side because we can't afford to buy good stallions. We buy nice models that look like racehorses. And that's it.” Markaz, Equiano, Bated Breath – you name it. “Don't forget Windsor Knot,” says snr, with his eyes widening at the other end of the kitchen table. “Rossini and Mujadil as well,” jnr adds. “It's down to value. We look at as many horses as we can and, when they're coming at the right price, we try to buy them. When you find yourself going past your valuation in the ring, they are the ones that you really like. Cercene went above our valuation but we loved her.” That initial outlay for Cercene may seem like a drop in the ocean for a Group 1 winner but, when you are sustaining a stable full of 30 to 40 horses and retaining shares like Murphy snr and jnr do, you tend to find a way to make money stretch. To that extent, snr provided a fascinating insight as to how he decides to invest his money at the sales, surmising, 'you don't buy the horse, the horse buys you.' Expanding on that phrase, he said, “You're buying a marriage. You need to do right by that animal for its lifetime when you buy it because you don't have the money to go out and buy another one. That's the art of training. What has half ruined the thing, in my opinion, is the vulgarity of money that is being thrown at it nowadays. It's sickening the game to a certain degree and creating false markets. Some horses are being overvalued. It's crazy. The day trainers go back and buy the horses for their owners will be a good one. It's a stronger bond that is created then. But when the agent buys the horse, it's another person to blame if the horse is no good. Just another excuse. I love looking for new stars at the sales.” “And talking to people,” jnr jokes. “But you have to talk to people at the sales because the people are representations of their horses,” comes the reply. “Oftentimes, the horses are very like the people who sell them. The one thing I am always afraid of is the pinhooker who has no land because the horses are in sheds. When you go training those horses, it's a disaster. There's a reason the same places keep producing winners. Tally-Ho, for example. I remember asking Jack Doyle what was the most important thing when buying a horse at the sales. And, do you know what he said? The vendor's name! The farm and the type of a man who reared the horses are more important than you'd think.” Murphy Jnr and Snr | Racingfotos.com Jnr's role extends far beyond winding up his Dad. The 43-year-old was born just a couple of days after snr sent out £100 purchase Felicity's Pet to win the Thyestes Chase back in 1982. That was one of the first big successes that was sent out from this place and hinted at even greater days to come. Snr recalled, “I started with two horses – Vibrax and Haybob – who had broken down and I got them back going again and won races with the two of them. I was working as an amateur jockey with Francis Shortt at the time and the horses came with me. The next thing, I rode a horse called The Wee Dean at Ballinrobe for Francis and I was only fourth so I got jocked off that horse. Lo and behold, if Francis would have given me the credence of putting up Dermot Weld or Ted Walsh for the next day, I would have accepted it. But he put up the late Brian Grassick instead. I said, 'F*** this, if I'm not as good as Brian, there's something wrong here.' I left Francis after that and went out by myself. “I rode Vibrax to win myself at Thurles – he was my first winner – and I pulled off a gamble on Haybob. I'd a thousand pounds on him at 10-1 and the price never changed. I can remember my father saying, 'if you give me the money you won, I'll guarantee you to buy this place'. That was 1976 and we've been here ever since.” He added, “There's loads of little stories. It's all about people and stories. We started off with jumpers and, people don't know this, but I had Galmoy up to three weeks before he ran. I met Carmel a few years after I came here and we were married in 1980. Then I went on a drinking spree. That didn't go down too well with everyone and we lost a few horses and things like that over it. I had a problem but didn't realise it. I actually believed that you couldn't be successful if you didn't drink. Even back in my father's day, when he used to sell farm machinery, I'd go to the sales as a young lad and if you didn't sell your horse, you'd go into the bar and get him sold there. Nowadays, you sell your horse and you pick up your coat and go home.” Morphing into one of the most respected Flat trainers that Ireland has to offer came a little later. And in no small part through the help of his son. After spending a couple of years studying in Trinity College in Dublin, jnr rerouted his attention to horses and completed the Irish National Stud course before cutting his teeth at Lane's End and Coolmore in America for two years. He has been back at the ranch since 2005 and the pair have enjoyed a steady stream of winners in that time. But that elusive Group 1 success never seemed so far away as in the summer of 2018 when the highly-contagious Strangles disease had the Murphy family contemplating the worst. “I was very grateful for the help of my school friend Aidan Maher who provided us with an isolation yard during that time,” snr remembers. “It was terrible. But not one owner left us. Tom Egan, in particular, was brilliant. He had about six horses with us at the time and you couldn't blame a man if he decided to go elsewhere. But Tom didn't flinch and neither did anyone else. They understood what we were going through. That is only seven years ago now. There was a veterinary clinic set up here for weeks on end as we tried to grapple with it and get over it. One horse brought it in and that was it. The rest of them became infected. I was down €70,000 and I didn't know where I was going to find my next penny. But we took it well. I can remember thinking, 'I could be teaching kids how to ride ponies next year.' That was the alternative. We had land and we had stables so I was thinking of how to generate an income. Pony trekking up the hill sounded nice at the time!” The proposition of this hidden gem of a training centre, that features a seven-furlong round sand and fibre gallop that would rival most racecourses in the country, being reduced to pony trekking was said firmly in cheek. The Murphys are made of different stuff and are a timely reminder of the brilliant horse people that are only begging to be given the chance to showcase their wares on the big stage. They've waited a lifetime for Cercene to come along, moved mountains to sell a share in the filly to Australian owner Shane Stafford in order to facilitate her staying in the yard and now the dream lives on. “There is international interest – from America, Australia and Japan – in Cercene,” jnr admitted. “Shane bought into her to race her and there are other people involved in the ownership as well but we will consider everything because there is a commercial reality to the whole thing. But I'd say she'll end up going to the Sceptre Sessions at Tattersalls at the end of the year. If you've a filly like her, it's the best sale in the world to bring them to. The world market is there and that's what you're worth. But she's come out of Royal Ascot in brilliant form and we have the option of the Irish Oaks and the Nassau Stakes is potentially another target so there's an awful lot of water to go under the bridge before we come to that.” Had Cercene never walked through these gates, and had she failed to respond tooth and nail to Gary Carroll's urgings to take the scalp of Zarigana at Ascot, Murphy snr is right. None of us would be here, sitting around the kitchen table today. But here we are. Horses and people, eh? “I meant what I said when you first walked in here,” says snr, before glancing over at his wife Carmel and son Joe. “I've said it to Tom Egan as well that none of this was any good unless we got a Group 1 in our lifetime. All I wanted was one. I have it now. So I'm relieved. “But I will say this, and it's not just because he's sitting here beside us, but since Joseph has come into it, he has made my life an awful lot easier and I couldn't have done it without him. Joseph has brought it to a new level and it's him who has done all the planning and he's just been…….he's been super at it.” And with that, the tears begin to flow. For once, words fail the Murphy clan. Nobody can bring themselves to look each other in the eyes but everybody knows. This is what it means. This is what it's all about. The post ‘I Was Thinking I’d Nothing To Show For My Life But Cercene Has Made It All Worthwhile’ appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions. View the full article
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