Edward Riley Bradley biography
Edward Riley Bradley, (born 1859, Pennsylvania, U.S.—died Aug. 15, 1946, Lexington, Ky.), U.S. sportsman, gambler, philanthropist, proprietor and racer of Thoroughbreds, 4 of whom received the Kentucky Derby.
As a boy, Bradley labored in metal mills, then went to the Southwest, the place he turned a cowboy and fought Indians and was briefly a miner earlier than he turned to playing, which turned a lifelong ardour. Before the flip of the century, he opened a playing on line casino in Palm Beach, Fla., the Oasis Club, which turned a favorite hang-out of celebrities. His Embassy Club, additionally in Palm Beach, was patronized and revered by social and industrial leaders who wintered in Florida. Advised by his doctor that he wanted to spend extra time open air, Bradley purchased the Idle Hour Farm, close to Lexington, Ky., and have become keen on horse racing, buying such excellent horses as Blue Larkspur—whom Bradley and his coach Dick Thompson thought-about his greatest horse, regardless of the animal’s shedding the Derby in 1929 on a muddy observe—Bimelech, Bridal Flower, Bazaar, Black Helen, and Bagenbaggage, along with the 4 who received the Kentucky Derby: Behave Yourself (1921); Bubbling Over (1926); Burgoo King (1932); and Brokers Tip (1933). Known for his blunt and forthright method and for his superstitions, Bradley gave all his horses names starting with the letter B. He additionally forbade his jockeys to hold whips. During the Depression of the Thirties, Bradley purchased an curiosity in Hialeah Park in Miami.
In all, his horses received about 1,000 races and greater than $2,500,000 in purses, however his bills undoubtedly exceeded that quantity. Bradley additionally instituted an annual charity race on the Idle Hour Farm, the proceeds of which went to Kentucky orphans of all races and religions. In 1940 he turned his Oasis Club over to the Catholic Institutum Divi Thomae for the founding of a laboratory of marine biology. Former governor A.O. Stanley of Kentucky gave Bradley the honorary rank of colonel.