Conor Murphy might be a resident of Kentucky for the last ten years, but that thick west Cork accent has very much remained.
One word is clearly heard though, over and over again.
That word is ‘lucky’.
Hardly surprising for a man who, a decade ago, landed the biggest bet in Cheltenham Festival history while working as a head lad for Nicky Henderson.
His by now legendary £50 accumulator on five of Henderson’s Festival runners turned him into an instant millionaire — when he scooped bookmaker Bet365’s maximum £1m payout.
Ten years on the 38-year-old Murphy is now a trainer based in the American city of Louisville — running a yard of 15-20 horses — having turned his big bet into a stable career.
His premises are named Riverside Stables — a nod to 2012 Ryanair Chase winner Riverside Theatre — the final leg of Murphy’s, and indeed Henderson’s, unforgettable five-timer.
“When I was doing the visa to come over I had to quickly come up with a business name so he seemed the right one to pick,” remarks Murphy, a native of Ballineen, 20 minutes west of Bandon.
“I’m kind of lucky in that I’d planned to come over here and start training even before I won that bet at Cheltenham. I’d always wanted to train and the money from winning the bet has given me the opportunity.
“My wife Julia is American and was in Nicky Henderson’s with me too. Part of the reason I came here was because she wanted to move back. We’ve four-year-old twins now and we’re definitely settled here for the time being.”
Murphy’s bet was struck four months before the 2012 Festival.
The odds on Sprinter Sacre, Simonsig, Bob’s Worth, Finian’s Rainbow and Riverside Theatre all winning were a massive 64,000-1.
He should have won over £3m but bookmakers’ maximum payout is capped at £1m.
“When you make a bet like that you don’t expect any return,” he says. “The fact that they all got there gave me a fighting chance. Then they all ran the race of their lives.”
Murphy’s lucky streak kept going after his arrival Stateside when just months into the job he bought a four-year-old named Dimension from James Fanshawe and Cheveley Park.
He took him to the Breeder’s Cup in 2014 and helped him make a name for himself in Kentucky, the centre of American racing.
“He was a real star for us. He won six times, four Group races and a couple of Listed races. He was a brilliant horse. When you have them you know you’re lucky but it’s only since he’s been retired that we really appreciate how good he was.
“I’ll always say I was lucky enough in racing. Working in Seven Barrows, I mean the horses we had were phenomenal really.
“And luckily when I started on my own over here, to get a horse like that in my first year was brilliant. You kind of think it would be nice to get a good horse straight away but I didn’t expect it to happen so fast.
“I had two good horses the next year too but we weren’t long finding out that’s not how it works all the time. We’ve had a lot of good days over here but I suppose the last two years have been a bit lean for us.
“Things are going all right. We’ve been at it for nearly ten years and it’s been decent enough.
“We’ve always been kind of small in numbers but the only thing that’s been helping us is that we’ve always kind of had a flagship horse,” adds Murphy, who bought his house in the States with his Cheltenham winnings.
“We’re kind of missing that now at the moment but we’ll just keep ticking away and hoping we’ll get another decent one.
“You’re always looking for more horses and more winners but we just have to make do with what we have at the moment.”
But back to that bet and this week ten years ago. The week that changed his life.
“It was obviously a life-changing experience, but the more time goes on, the less believable it gets. I’d had a few decent wins before but nothing close to that.”
“I worked six years for Nicky and we never had as good a team as that year,” adds Murphy, who originally won a scholarship to work at Henderson’s stables in Lambourn, eventually working his way up to be appointed head lad in 2008.
Murphy was at Cheltenham on the second day when Simonsig (Neptune), Bobs Worth (RSA) and Finian’s Rainbow, a horse he looked after himself, won the Champion Chase.
Sprinter Sacre’s opening-day Arkle win had meant he’d landed four out of four leaving the track that Wednesday, with Riverside Theatre to come in the Ryanair the following day.
“It took me a while to calm down after Finian’s won the Champion Chase. But I remember being upstairs after with a few friends to watch the Fred Winter.
“Then Jerry McGrath, who would be one of my best friends, ended up winning the race on Une Artiste. It was his first Cheltenham Festival winner so we went down to the winner’s enclosure to congratulate him.
“That Wednesday night we did a fair amount of celebrating. It went long into the early hours and we’d to be in the yard by 5.30am so there wasn’t much sleep.
“I was worse for wear watching the race at home on the sofa.
“All I remember is thinking that it wasn’t going to happen, it wasn’t meant to be. But, in fairness to the horse, he kept finding and finding and it was just an unbelievable win.
“I jumped up off the sofa and the hangover was gone in the blink of an eye.”
Murphy suddenly became the most wanted man in Cheltenham. He was the story of the week and every journalist in the Cotswolds was chasing him.
“I just didn’t expect there to be a big deal about it. I suppose I’d only told a few people and was thinking that no-one would know.
“Then all of a sudden we are back at work two hours later, and there is Sky Sports and all of these messages on my phone. I was getting bombarded with calls from reporters. I didn’t know what to do.
“Nicky Henderson told me to go up to the house for dinner and a few drinks and we’ll figure it out then. He told me to talk to people and it would all blow over.”
A decade on, Murphy’s first winner of the season came when a horse named Sliabh Aughty won at Cincinnati’s Turfway Park in February.
“That name could come out anyway over here,” he laughs.
“They do a lot of night racing here. It’s not even an evening meeting. There’s a lot of opinions about that but they’re making their money from the betting.
“The winter here is all about survival to be honest. Once the spring weather comes you’ve Keeneland in April and then obviously the Kentucky Derby in Churchill Downs.
“We’re very lucky in Kentucky, there’s high-quality racing and very good money to be won.”
He still struggles with the language of American racing though and they still struggle with his west Cork brogue.
“It can be confusing. I still use a lot of the same phrases from home. Calling the distance of a race ‘the trip’ is a big one. I ran a horse over a mile and a furlong at Keeneland once and I said to the jockey afterwards, ‘Did he get the trip okay?’ He’d no idea what I was talking about.
“The terminology is very different. But I suppose if I haven’t changed by now I might never change.”
Murphy dreams of returning home one to train one day — with National Hunt racing still very much his first love.
“Going back home is something I think about all the time. The time would have to be right but it would be a dream to train at home definitely. I just have to take each day as it comes.
“I don’t love American racing like I do racing at home. But the opportunities and the money here are a lot better than home.
“There’s no option here really but to train on the flat but jump racing has always been my passion and still is. I’d rather watch a handicap hurdle somewhere at home than at a Group 1 race over here.
“But it’s all about making a living. This country and the money over here, it just seemed to make the most sense. I’d love to think it might happen one day if the time was right but we’ll keep things going here at the moment anyway.
“We’ve 15 in training at the moment. My numbers can change so much though. We don’t keep too many during the winter. We try to keep horses fresh for the summer.”
Murphy’s next big target is getting back to Cork.
Covid has denied him a chance to return home to see his family but a trip in July is booked.
“I haven’t been back in Cork in over three years. Christmas 2018 was the last time. We were thinking of coming the Christmas just gone but between the price of flights and Covid we decided not to come.
“We’re coming home in July for a couple of weeks so that’ll be nice. Three years is a long time. I used to go home once a year.”
He’s still full of admiration for his old boss Henderson, who remains the trainer of the big British hopes at Cheltenham despite being now 71.
Matching his 2012 tally of six winners seems unlikely but with the brilliant Shishkin leading his team, he’s a good chance of upsetting the Irish in some of the bigger races.
“I know I might be a bit biassed but I think he’s taken a lot of unfair criticism over the years. He’s always going to do right by the horse.
“Shishkin is unbelievable and is actually very similar to Altior the way he finishes his races. He stays so well.
“Sprinter Sacre used to just kill horses. The speed he’d go off the race would often be over three or four fences from the finish.
“Altior and Shishkin seem to have a similar style in that they often give you the impression they might be beaten but they hit the line very strong.
“Nico De Boinville is another that takes unfair stick. Having worked with him I can tell you he’s as cool a guy as you could meet.”
Perhaps Conor might be tempted to have another bet?
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