Lord Murphy was an American thoroughbred

Thoroughbred

The Thoroughbred is a horse breed best known for its use in horse racing. Although the word thoroughbred is sometimes used to refer to any breed of purebred horse, it technically refers only to the Thoroughbred breed...

 racehorse that was bred in Tennessee

Tennessee

Tennessee is a U.S. state located in the Southeastern United States. It has a population of 6,346,105, making it the nation's 17th-largest state by population, and covers , making it the 36th-largest by total land area...

 and is best known for winning the 1879 Kentucky Derby

Kentucky Derby

The Kentucky Derby is a Grade I stakes race for three-year-old Thoroughbred horses, held annually in Louisville, Kentucky, United States on the first Saturday in May, capping the two-week-long Kentucky Derby Festival. The race is one and a quarter mile at Churchill Downs. Colts and geldings carry...

. He was originally named Patmus and was a grandson of Lexington

Lexington (horse)

Lexington was a United States Thoroughbred race horse who won six of his seven race starts. Perhaps his greatest fame came however as the most successful sire of the second half of the nineteenth century; he was the Leading sire in North America 16 times, and of his many brood mare and racer...

. He descended from the Byerly Turk

Byerly Turk

The Byerley Turk or Byerly Turk, was the earliest of three stallions that were the founders of the modern Thoroughbred horse racing bloodstock...

.

The 5th Kentucky Derby was run on a fast track with a field of nine horses, including the great racer and sire Falsetto

Falsetto (horse)

Falsetto was an American Thoroughbred Champion racehorse and outstanding sire. Bred and raced by J. W. Hunt Reynolds of Lexington, Kentucky, his dam was Farfaletta and his sire was General Abe Buford's very good runner, Enquirer....

. Lord Murphy was knocked almost to his knees by Ada Glenn on the first turn, but managed to pull himself up from 7th to 1st place at the mile marker to win over the fast approaching Falsetto.

Lord Murphy was bought soon after his Derby win by horseman James R. Keene

James R. Keene

James Robert Keene was a Wall Street stock broker and a major thoroughbred race horse owner and breeder.-Biography:He was born in London, England in 1838. He was fourteen years of age when his family emigrated to the United States in 1852...

, who promptly shipped him overseas to the British

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

racing circuit. Lord Murphy did not race well in Britain, and after four miserable starts, was eventually sold in a British public auction for 10 guineas (around $50).