Young rider Murray shows raw talent

NEW ORLEANS – It has happened quickly for apprentice rider Erica Murray. Last winter, she was exercising horses in New Orleans, still learning the ropes of the racetrack. A month into the 2015-16 Fair Grounds meet, Murray is a top-10 rider, with a record of 6-7-6 from 54 mounts through Thursday’s card.

“It’s kind of crazy,” Murray said. “Last year, I was here galloping. I never thought I’d be riding this year.”

Murray, who just turned 18, won her first race May 9 at Louisiana Downs, but a month into her nascent career, a mount ran through the temporary turf rail, acquainting Murray with an unavoidable part of a jockey’s life – injury. She broke three ribs and punctured a lung, and was chomping at the bit for two months, eager to get back into action. Murray returned for the last month of the Louisiana Downs meet, riding 15 winners there in total, then moved her tack to Fair Grounds.

Murray still is raw, several of her fellow Fair Grounds riders confirm, but she has talent and is humble and willing to learn. It’s a promising start for someone with barely four months of race-riding experience.

“She looks over a race real good, and she communicates with the horse, and I think that’s the key to anyone that wants to ride,” said trainer Joe Duhon. “She’s young, and she’s wanting to learn. I would have to say she has a lot of instinct, a lot of raw ability.”

Duhon was sitting on his pony out on the track at Louisiana Downs the morning when Murray, then 16, showed up with a strong desire to become a jockey and a vague idea of how that might happen. Murray’s parents aren’t racetrackers, but she grew up five minutes from Louisiana Downs, rode throughout her childhood, and started hopping from farm to farm at age 13, galloping for whomever would give her a leg up, be it on a Thoroughbred or Quarter Horse.

“Anything anybody would give me to ride, I would just try and hold it – and usually get run off with,” Murray said.

The horses don’t often run off with her anymore.

“People say I can relax them, that I have good hands, and I hope that’s true,” she said. “I like to think I’ve got kind of a clock in my head by now.”

Longtime agent Fred Aime is booking mounts for Murray. And if things keep going well, she hopes Aime will take her with him to Kentucky next spring.