LRL: Trainer Joe Murphy wins a pair
Veteran filling in for suspended Jose Corrales
Frank Vespe
October 9, 2026
Joe Murphy knows how Friday’s results might look: a new trainer takes over a barn and promptly wins a pair of races. He also knows how much work preceded his arrival.
“They did a good job leading up to it,” Murphy said. “I just came in and just just kind of maintained everything the way it should be.”
Murphy, 62, is training horses formerly conditioned by longtime friend Jose Corrales, whose two-year suspension began Oct. 3 after one of his horses tested positive for nikethamide. Corrales, who was winning at a career-norm 14% rate this year, is appealing the suspension. Murphy’s wins were his first since he won two races in 2017.
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The circumstances made for an abrupt transition. But the man stepping into the job brings a lifetime around horses, years of training in Asia, and longstanding ties to both Corrales and the people in the barn.
On Friday at Laurel Park, that combination produced two wins and two thirds through the afternoon’s first four races.
Always Forward ($15.40) rallied from last under Jorge Hernandez to win a one-mile starter optional claiming race by two lengths. Murphy also sent out third-place finisher Skip Thru Da Fire.
Two races later, Barak Farm’s Remembertheword ($28.80) slipped through along the rail under Jean Briceno and drew clear to win a seven-furlong allowance optional claiming race for 2-year-olds by 2 1/4 lengths. Stablemate Baru finished third.
The winners are half-siblings, both bred by Charles Parker’s Barak Farm and out of the Giant’s Causeway mare Requesting. Always Forward, a 6-year-old daughter of Atreides, is owned by Murphy; Remembertheword is a gelded son of Thousand Words. Always Forward won for the seventh time in 53 career outings, while the 2-year-old Remembertheword is now 2-for-5.
For Murphy, the immediate task was keeping an established operation moving. His approach was to assess the horses, make sure they were sound, and resist the temptation to overhaul their routines. Having familiar people around him helped.
“It was a little bit rushed, but we got a good team,” he said.
Murphy grew up in Floral Park, N.Y., near Belmont Park. His father spent 43 years as a valet in New York, and Murphy’s own early work included walking horses. His first real job, he recalled, was with Doug Peterson, who trained Seattle Slew after Billy Turner.
Racing eventually took Murphy to Asia, where he said he spent more than two decades, including about 16 years in Macau. He also was among the first foreigners to trainer horses in South Korea. Corrales rode for him in Macau, though the two had first met in New York.
Whatever he did, and wherever he was, Murphy said, racing remained central to his life.
“This has always been the thing for me: horse racing,” he said.
Taking over under these circumstances has nevertheless been difficult. Murphy said he felt bad for his friend and described having to feel his way through the transition. There is also an adjustment to the current rules, including HISA’s, after several years away from training. The daily care of horses, though, feels familiar.
“To me, it’s not a big deal to train horses,” he said. “I mean, just doing it because I’ve always done it.”
In his unexpected new gig, Murphy’s hit the ground running. But after a liftetime in racing, he’s aware that the big challenge isn’t enjoying the highs, it’s handling the lows.
“It looks rosy today,” he said. “I mean, I’m sure I’m going to run into a wall here sooner or later.”
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