Promising 2-year-olds lure Murphy out of retirement

Jockey Cindy Murphy had retired from race riding late last year, but the promising group of 2-year-olds in training by her husband, Travis Murphy, led to her return to the saddle earlier this month at Prairie Meadows.

Cindy Murphy said her husband has a 26-horse stable racing at Prairie Meadows, with about a dozen of those runners 2-year-olds. They are by such sires as Audible, Brody’s Cause, Constitution, Instagrand, Mo Town, and Thousand Words. Maverama, a colt by Cairo Prince, runs in the fourth on Friday.

“We had some young horses that I was really excited about,” Murphy said.

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Murphy said another promising runner for the barn is Gunite Max, who is a daughter of Volatile. She was supposed to make her debut June 17, but threw Murphy behind the starting gate.

“She got scared,” Murphy said.

Murphy cracked a collar bone in the incident. She expects to resume race riding in a few weeks.

“It’s already feeling better, obviously, than it did when it first happened,” she said last week of the injury,

Murphy said the incident was a bit of déjà vu, as she had been injured in 2022 when thrown by a 2-year-old filly, Crypto Mo, just minutes before her debut at Prairie. Crypto Mo would go on to give Murphy a milestone of 2,000 career wins when she captured the Grade 3 Iowa Oaks in 2023.

“She went on to be a decent filly,” Murphy said. “We’ll see with this filly. She seems to be decent. I’m hoping she turns out to be something.

“That’s what the future is about – all the youngsters.”

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