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an oil well on some grazing land Hoots had leased from the Osage Nation before he died. Coincidentally, the year after Al Hoots passed away, and the year before his oil was discovered, the magnifcent Pan Zareta also died. Her pedigree was no less suspect than Useeit's, but between the two they had ridden roughshod over most of their male competition in those early years of the twentieth century. Unlike Useeit, who usually raced in the Southwest, Pan Zareta (or "Panzy," as she was fondly known— she was named after the mayor of Juarez's daughter) heard the starting gun from Texas to Kentucky, New York, Canada, and points in between. If you leave out the cynical handicappers, fllies have always occupied a special place in the hearts of racing fans, and Panzy was no exception: Whenever people heard she was racing, they came from miles away just to get a look. In 1917 she took the Oaklawn Stakes, beating the 1914 Kentucky Derby winner Old Rosebud. Although Panzy won few of the major events, mainly because she wasn't entered, during her exceptional six-year career she took more races than any other mare then on record, earning more than $750,000 in today's dollars. After seven years of racing, Panzy's owners decided to retire her for breeding, but when it was discovered she could not foal, they sent her back to New Orleans to train for upcoming Fair Grounds events. There, she contracted pneumonia and died on Christmas Day, 1918, and because she was so beloved by the fans, she became the frst horse to be buried in the Fair Grounds infeld, an honor that was bestowed only once more. True to the deathbed promise she had made, with her oil money the widow Hoots sought out the stallion that her husband had envisioned to produce a champion. In 1920 Useeit was shipped off to Lexington, Kentucky, to meet Black Toney, a descendant of the im- riding high: Black Gold rode to fame and fortune in 1924 by winning an unprecedented four races. The same feat today would be the equivalent of winning racing's Triple Crown. mortal British racehorse Eclipse, and the premier stud at Colonel E. R. Bradley's Idle Hour Farm. The resulting colt, born in 1921, was named Black Gold, an Indian expression for the oil that was now making some Oklahoma Native Americans wealthy. As trainer for Black Gold, Rosa retained an employee on her farm named Hanley Webb, who had also trained Useeit, and who has been described as "old school," which can mean anything from no-nonsense to hard-hearted. But whatever Webb did with the new colt as a yearling, it defnitely showed up in his juvenile year, when he won the Bashford Manor Stakes at Churchill Downs, placed second in both the Cincinnati Stakes and the Tobacco Stakes in Northern Kentucky, and placed third in the Breeders' Futurity Stakes at Lexington. From the beginning, Black Gold had as his jockey a New Orleans Irishman named John D. "Jaydee" Mooney, who was so taken with Black Gold's personality and spirit that he often made the sacrifce of declining to ride other horses. Much to his credit, Black Gold wasn't quirky or fnicky like a lot of racing animals, and showed a willingness to run and a determination to win that endeared him to fans and handlers alike. Though many critics derided the sleek little jet-black stallion as being undersized, his record in 1923 made him a likely contender in the much-touted Kentucky Derby. Then, on January 8, to the fans' delight, a three-year-old Black Gold started the New Year with a bang by winning the Louisiana Stakes—his frst race in the big time—by six lengths and in a driving rain, too, confrming himself as a frst-rate mudder as well. As it happened, 1924 was the Kentucky Derby's fftieth anniversary, or Golden Jubilee, as race offcials preferred to call it, and accordingly, momentous changes were announced amid great fanfare. Not only was the race designated the Run for the Roses, but, for the frst time, in the opening ceremonies "The Star-Spangled Banner" was replaced by Stephen Foster's Spring 2013 . Tempus-Magazine.com 73