Churchill to offer record stakes purses, race named after Isaac Murphy at spring meet

Churchill Downs will distribute $10 million in stakes purses during this year’s Kentucky Derby week, including $120,000 in a stakes race re-named for the Hall of Fame rider Isaac Murphy, the son of a former slave who won three of the early runnings of the Kentucky Derby.

In a release, Churchill said that the $13.44 million the track plans to distribute in purses for 40 stakes throughout this year’s spring meet will be a record. The $3 million Kentucky Derby will be run on May 1, just eight months after it was run in 2020 due to disruptions caused by the coronavirus pandemic. The meet this year runs for 38 live race days from April 24 to June 26.

The Derby card will once again feature a slew of stakes races, including four Grade 1 events: the Derby, the $1 million Old Forester Bourbon Turf Classic, the $500,000 Churchill Downs, and the $500,000 Derby City Distaff. Three Grade 2 races are also scheduled for the 14-race Derby card.

The $1.25 million Kentucky Oaks card will be run the day prior, on a card that also features the Grade 1 La Troienne and four Grade 2 races.

The Isaac Murphy Marathon Stakes will be run on the Tuesday night card that kicks off Derby week, Churchill Downs said. The race was formerly known as the Champions Day Marathon.

Isaac Murphy, who was inducted into the National Horse Racing Museum and Hall of Fame in 1955, is credited with 530 wins during a 20-year career, though his Hall of Fame biography notes that “it is likely many of his races did not appear in chart books.” Born in 1861 in Frankfort, Ky., Murphy rode the winners of the 1884, 1890, and 1891 Kentucky Derbies, when the race was not considered the standard-bearer it is today.

In 2015, Churchill named a stakes race for William Walker Jr., a Versailles, Ky., native who was born a slave but went on to win six of Churchill’s first 13 titles for leading jockey. Walker also rode the winner of the 1877 Derby. The $125,000 William Walker Stakes is scheduled for opening night, April 24.

“It is important to amplify the stories of these great jockeys, to acknowledge the painful truths that led to their exclusion from horse racing in our country more than 100 years ago and to herald their legendary contributions to our sport and to the Kentucky Derby,” said Mike Anderson, the president of Churchill Downs racetrack, in a release.

In 2020, protestors in Louisville drawing attention to racial inequality and to the case of Breonna Taylor, who was killed by city police officers earlier in the year, used the backdrop of the Derby to march past the track just prior to the race.

For this year’s spring meet, maiden special weights will offer record purses of $106,000 during Derby week and $91,000 after Derby week is over. Churchill said that the record purses are due to subsidies provided by its casino operations at Derby City Gaming just down the road from the racetrack.

The closing-day card will feature the Grade 2 Stephen Foster and six other stakes races, including the Grade 2 Fleur de Lis and Grade 2 Wise Dan.