The horseman who was twice a hero

Mike Murphy called me the other day.

Mike, for those who aren’t deeply steeped in our sport, is a long-time harness racing driver-trainer—mostly trainer these days—who always has a competitive small stable wherever he goes.

He—as am I—is in the sunset of life these days, but, in his 77th year, his setting sun is still much higher in the sky and far from setting than mine because of a grand son—make that a grandson—of his.

Backtracking a bit, I met Mike back in 1983 when he loaned me a horse that was “bred to be a good one.”

Yes, Top Line Collins was my horse in a media race at Pompano Park and Murph gave me instructions on how to drive him.

“He can leave at bit,” Murph said, “and if you can rate him, he should be just fine.”

I cut fractions of :32, 1:05 and 1:38 and a piece but one horse passed me like I was standing still heading into the final turn.

The next morning, the trackman said he found a bit on the racetrack around the 3/4 pole…and I said that’s exactly where Top Line Collins spit his out!

Fast forward 30 or so years to 2014 and there he was—Mike Murphy—and our long friendship was rekindled.

Besides the love of horses, Mike and I had something else in common—kidney disease—and we both needed a transplant.

Age plays a role in whether or not one can get on a transplant list and, of course, age was against both of us.

But Mike found a hero in his own second family—a non-blood relative—an “inherited grandson” that proved to be an unlikely match for a kidney transplant.

And this hero was Jacob Fox, a driver-trainer, as well, who has been grinding out a living in a sport he loves since 2002.

So, Jacob, in his 30’s, decided to give a kidney to Mike, in his ’70’s, making the next-to-impossible possible for his grandpa.

Because of Jacob’s generosity, Mike Murphy had the gift of viable life once more and enjoy the successes of a powerful one-two punch at Pompano Park in the form of the pacer Four Socks and the trotter Tater Twister.

Yes, Jacob Fox became a hero to Mike Murphy, and everyone connected to this unlikely event, especially Mike’s wife Barbara, Jacob’s grandmother.

She said, “I am so proud of Jacob and the gesture that he made to save a life…it’s just an unbelievable thing to do. And to think that he was a match was probably a million to one.”

The soft-spoken Mike said, “There are no words.”

But that’s part one of the story.

In June, Jacob saw a horse being loaded onto an Amish truck and, upon inquiry, found out that it was the 12-year-old warhorse Feel Lika Winner.

With an ankle the size of a grapefruit, Jacob knew the consequences facing the horse and thought that a winner of $600,000 deserved an ending a bit better than that.

He asked what it would take to get the horse off the truck and the answer was $5,000.

Done deal! Feel Lika Winner was safe.

With racing so tough on the Ohio-Indiana circuit, Jacob sent the horse to grandpa—Mike Murphy—knowing the care that he would get in Bluegrass Country at Oak Grove.

With a month’s rest and rehab, Feel Lika Winner made seven starts, winning four of them and earning $24,452 in just two months and one day for owner Jacob Fox.

The gallant son of Feeling Frisky, up to this writing, has 277 career starts with 47 lifetime wins and $609,205 in earnings under 14 different trainers in a career that began 11 seasons ago. He took his 1:49.2 career best win over the Hoosier Park seven-eighths oval as a nine-year-old.

“Horses like this one—Feel Lika Winner—should never face the end like this horse did,” said Murphy, “and Jacob and I are making sure that, when his racing days are over, he’ll be going to the Kentucky Horse Park to enjoy his days in retirement.”

So, Jacob Fox became a hero for the second time—this time saving an equine life.

Now, the only question left is…will Jacob offer to give ME a kidney? I know he’s got one left!

by John Berry, for Harnesslink