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"My Old Kentucky Home," a song that still causes many native Kentuckians to cry into their mint juleps even before the racing begins. Also, a spectacular new trophy was fashioned that remains the standard design to this day: a nearly twofoot-tall, three-and-a-half-pound solid gold loving cup, with a horse and jockey on the lid. With the Kentucky Derby's future thus fortifed and "the most exciting two minutes in sports" upcoming, racing fans watched Rosa Hoots take her seat in one of the owner's boxes at Churchill Downs—the frst Native American and only the second woman to do so—in a year that saw Congress pass the Snyder Act, granting U.S. citizenship to all American Indians. Out on the smoothed dirt track, nineteen edgy horses were led to their places at the starting line— among them the sensational Kentucky blueblood Chilhowee, holder of the fastest 1 1/8 miles on record and with a pedigree from Great Britain that would reach to the moon. When the starting pistol was fred, Black Gold stumbled at the rail and it got worse from there. Hemmed in but still tracking the leaders, he was bumped, fouled, and thrown off, but recovered to shoulder free on the outside and gain on Chilhowee, who seemed to have the race neatly bagged along the rail. In the stretch it was Black Gold and Chilhowee neck and neck, but Black Gold was not to be denied. Jaydee Mooney asked for more and Black Gold gave it all, bursting across the fnish wire a half length ahead at 2:05:20. It wasn't a pretty race, and a lesser horse might have faltered, but as the esteemed racing chronicler John Hervey wrote, Black Gold "won it in racehorse style after a rough race, displaying rare determination." Afterward, Rosa Hoots stood in the winner's circle with her horse, wear- 74 Tempus-Magazine.com . Spring 2013 ing a gauzy printed dress and her face half covered by one of those funny little 1920s hats that look like a fowerpot turned upside down. She appears in the pictures somewhat embarrassed by all the photographers' attention, while clutching in both hands the big gold cup that her late husband had promised her in his dying days. In that era there was no Triple Crown, a Sure beT: Crowds pack Churchill Downs for the 50th anniversary of the Kentucky Derby that was won by Black Gold. and while the Preakness and Belmont were undeniably important races, they had none of the cachet they do today. Black Gold was entered in neither of them that year, but went on to win two other derbies, the Ohio and the Chicago, making a total of four in one year—a record that stood for several decades. Moreover, his victory in both the Louisiana Derby and the Kentucky Derby went unmatched for more than seventy years. He fnished in the money in eleven of his thirteen starts that year, which is why what happened next seems so puzzling, so unnecessary. Several years ago I was asked to introduce the movie Seabiscuit at its premiere gala held in Atlanta. During a subsequent conversation with Laura Hillenbrand, author of the brilliant book on which the movie was based, I suggested that she write the story of Black Gold. "I can't," she said, "it's too sad." In two years of racing, Black Gold had earned more than $110,000 for his owner—some $1.5 million in today's dollars—an enormous return by any measure. Still, it was customary to keep a horse on the circuit so long as he was viable, or else to put him out to stud, which is what Rosa Hoots did with Black Gold after he developed foot problems. Specifcally, at the end of that grueling 1924 season during which Gold ran no fewer than thirteen big-time races, he became hampered by a quarter crack, which is a split in the hoof. It is usually brought on by an imbalance in the foot, and can cause extreme footsoreness and lead to more serious trouble down the road. Putting him out to stud was, of course, the right thing to do, since continuing to race the horse could only aggravate such an injury. Trouble was, Black Gold turned out to be sterile, a condition not especially uncommon, but an unfortunate one considering that he was a perfect product of his dam's speed and his sire's stamina. So, for the next two years he languished in pastures in a kind of horse purgatory, unable to race and unable to mate. By all rights, he should have been converted to dressage, or at least to a saddle horse, so he could spend the remainder of his days enjoying romps across the Oklahoma plains. But for some reason that was not to be, and the blame most likely rests on his trainer, Hanley Webb. In 1927 it was decided to return Black Gold to the racing circuit. Modern veterinary medicine has ways of dealing with a quarter crack that were unheard of eighty years ago, but perhaps