Murray’s Legacy Lives On at Track

About Bill Shoemaker, Jim Murray once wrote: “He rode a horse the way Joe DiMaggio caught a fly ball. Watching Shoe ride a horse was like watching Gene Kelly dance or Gauguin paint.”

About the Kentucky Derby, Murray said: “The Derby isn’t just a horse race, any more than Elizabeth Taylor is just a woman, the Taj Mahal a building or Mt. Everest a hill. The Derby is America’s race. Everything else is Bridgeport.”

Murray’s fondness for racing led Hollywood Park to name a race after him in 1990. Now the purse for the race, scheduled for May 10 and to be called the Jim Murray Memorial Handicap, is being increased from $75,000 to $400,000, which makes it, along with the San Juan Capistrano Handicap at Santa Anita, the richest grass race in California. The race is expected to increase as high as a Grade I Stakes in future years.

Other races scheduled for that day at Hollywood are the $200,000 Los Angeles Times Handicap, a Grade III stake for sprinters; and the $150,000 Mervyn LeRoy Handicap, a Grade II race that is a prep for the Hollywood Gold Cup. The Los Angeles Times Handicap, formerly known as the Los Angeles Handicap, was first run in 1938, the year Hollywood Park opened.

The Los Angeles Times Sports Workshop, a four-day gathering of aspiring sports journalists, will be held in association with the 14th running of the Murray race.

The college students who attend the May 7-10 workshop will listen to Times editors, develop stories about horse racing and compete for $10,000 in scholarships that will be funded by Hollywood Park and The Times.

The week will end with an awards dinner at the track Friday night, May 9, and the running of the Jim Murray race May 10.

“Jim Murray’s columns graced The Times for nearly four decades,” said John Puerner, publisher of the newspaper. “He was one of only four sportswriters ever to win the Pulitzer Prize, honoring a talent exceeded only by his generosity of spirit. Noting that his final column was on horse racing, a workshop for aspiring sports journalists honoring Jim Murray is a very fitting tribute to his remarkable legacy.”

Murray died in 1998, the day after he wrote about Free House’s win in the Pacific Classic at Del Mar.

Ted Murray, the columnist’s son and a longtime Times employee, will be honorary chairman of the race and the workshop.

“Jim Murray was a great friend to horse racing,” said Rick Baedeker, president of Hollywood Park. “We are very pleased to join The Times in introducing young journalists to a sport that Jim loved.”

Hollywood Park’s parent track, Churchill Downs, has played host to the Kentucky Derby Sports Journalism Seminar since 1992.

“One of the purposes,” said Karl Schmitt, a senior vice president at Churchill Downs, “is to create an awareness in racing for future generations of sports journalists.”

The Times’ workshop is tuition-free. Students must be enrolled in a college and nominated by their teachers to be eligible to attend. Applications are being distributed to schools nationwide. March 1 is the deadline to apply. For information, contact the Hollywood Park publicity department, at (310) 419-1535 or mikem@hollywoodpark.com.