Career
He was the trainer of Lexington, a top racehorse of the 1850s and whose excellence in competition and as a sire stud continued well into the 20th century earning the horse induction into the United States" National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame in 1955. Born in 1812 in Virginia to parents Luke Pryor and Ann Batte Lane. John Benjamin Pryor was counted in Adams County, Mississippi on the 1850 and 1860 United States Census.2 He was a slave owner and horse trainer, employed by the prominent Mississippi politician Adam Lewis Bingaman.
He became the trainer of Lexington, the most famous race horse of the 1850s, after racing entrepreneur Richard Ten Broeck and his syndicate purchased the horse "in no very long time Lexington was shipped south to Natchez, where he was placed in charge of Adam Lewis Bingaman, whose stable was trained by the veteran J. B. Pryor, then at the head of his profession."3 Lexington"s skeleton is displayed at the Smithsonian in Washington, District of Columbia and in the 1950s he was entered into the Thoroughbred Racing Hall of Fame in Saratoga, New New York
Pryor and his family returned to the United States aboard the ship Cimbria, entering New York City on October 12, 1872.5 By 1880 Pryor was living in Monmouth County, New Jersey. The 1880 United States Census answers a question as to the possible identity of Pryor"s wife.
Pryor"s sons also became horse trainers. Luke began his own training career in 1872 under the employment of avid sportsman August Belmont, namesake of the Belmont Stakes in the United States. Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing.
Also, son John Pryor worked as a horse trainer in New Jersey.6 ".