Lord Murphy (1876 – after 1881) was an American

thoroughbred The Thoroughbred is a horse breed best known for its use in horse racing. Although the word ''thoroughbred'' is sometimes used to refer to any breed of purebred horse, it technically refers only to the Thoroughbred breed. Thoroughbreds are c ...

racehorse that was bred in

Tennessee Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked state in the Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 36th-largest by area and the 15th-most populous of the 50 states. It is bordered by Kentucky to th ...

and is best known for winning the 1879

Kentucky Derby The Kentucky Derby is a horse race held annually in Louisville, Kentucky, United States, almost always on the first Saturday in May, capping the two-week-long Kentucky Derby Festival. The competition is a Grade I stakes race for three-year ...

. He was originally named Patmus and was a grandson of Lexington. He descended from the

Byerly Turk The Byerley Turk (c. 1680 – c. 1703), also spelled Byerly Turk, was the earliest of three stallions that were the founders of the modern Thoroughbred horse racing bloodstock (the other two are the Godolphin Arabian and the Darley Arabian).Ahnert ...

. The 5th Kentucky Derby was run on a fast track with a field of nine horses, including the notable racer and future leading sire

Falsetto ''Falsetto'' (, ; Italian diminutive of , "false") is the vocal register occupying the frequency range just above the modal voice register and overlapping with it by approximately one octave. It is produced by the vibration of the ligamentous ed ...

. Lord Murphy was knocked almost to his knees by Ada Glenn on the first turn, but managed to pull himself up from 7th to 1st place at the mile marker to win over the fast approaching Falsetto. Lord Murphy was bought soon after his Derby win by horseman

James R. Keene James Robert Keene (February 8, 1838 - January 3, 1913) was a Wall Street stockbroker and a major thoroughbred race horse owner and breeder. Biography He was born in London, England in 1838. He was fourteen years of age when his family immigr ...

, who promptly shipped him overseas to the

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

racing circuit. His arrival was greeted with interest in Britain, as he was "purely American", rather than being bred from relatively recent European exports. Lord Murphy did not race well in Britain, being unplaced in the 1880 Chatsworth Handicap Plate at Derby and the 1881 Visitors Plate run at the Craven meeting. He acquired a "savage" temper and became a " roarer", an ailment that Keene thought developed secondary to the change in weather between the United States and England. Keene sold Lord Murphy to Richard Ten Broeck in May 1881. He was later sold at a British public auction in Newmarket on July 6, 1881, the horse fetching a small sum of 10 guineas ($50)."When The Bloom Is Off The Roses", ''Sports Illustrated'', April 28, 198

/ref>

Pedigree

References

1876 racehorse births Racehorses bred in Tennessee Racehorses trained in the United States Kentucky Derby winners Thoroughbred family A10 Byerley Turk sire line {{Racehorse-stub