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Webb believed that it was not as bad as it seemed, or at least that it would not cause much trouble. But the fact is, racing a horse in such condition is risky: To race, a horse must be in shape, and to be in shape he must train, and training means a lot of hard running, which puts terrifc strain on any racing animal—let alone one that has been idle for two years. Nevertheless, when the 1927 season opened, Black Gold, now a six-yearold, was back on the tracks, where he compiled a record of exactly no wins, no places, and no shows—a humiliating comedown for a former winner of the Kentucky Derby. That, if nothing else, should have told his trainer and his owner that their horse had become an also-ran. What discussions might have taken place between Hanley Webb and Rosa Hoots are lost to history, but when the 1928 season rolled around, Black Gold, obviously still plagued with the quarter crack, again found himself on the starting line, this During the winter season at the Fair Grounds, Black Gold was memorialized in a ceremony, and fowers were placed on his grave. time for the Salome Purse at the Fair Grounds in New Orleans on a cold January day. Another horse with his sort of injury might have sulked or shirked, but Black Gold did neither. He was in the running all the way, and thundering down the homestretch trying to make up ground, when his jockey heard the sickening crack that means a broken leg. Even then, he never stopped running, and in one last gallant and astounding effort he somehow fnished the race on three legs. But it was too late for anything except to put him down. Black Gold died that afternoon on the same track where he had won his frst race, and where Al Hoots had fallen in love with Useeit back in 1909. He lay barely a stone's throw from the weathered marble monument that enshrined about the author Winston groom elevates the art of storytelling WinSTOn grOOM is best known for his novel Forrest Gump, which has sold more than 2.5 million copies in the united States alone and millions more worldwide on the heels of its blockbuster movie adaptation starring Tom hanks. The book has also been reprinted in at least 13 countries. Mr. groom is the author of 16 books. he plans to release his 17th this fall. The book is tentatively called, The Aviators: Genius and Uncommon Courage in the Epic Age of Flight. born in 1943, Mr. groom grew up in Mobile, alabama. in 1965 he graduated from the university of alabama and was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the u.S. army. he served in Vietnam until September 1967, when he was honorably discharged with the rank of captain. he spent eight years as a reporter and columnist for the Washington Star before becoming a full-time author. he holds several honorary degrees as a doctor of humane Letters. Mr. groom lives in Point Clear, alabama, where he enjoys the public's continued warm response to his unlikely hero, Forrest gump. he believes, as Forrest says, "always be able to look back and say, 'at least, i didn't lead no humdrum life.'" his mother's nemesis, Pan Zareta. They said that afterward spectators wandered onto the track, wanting to cut a lock of hair from Black Gold's mane or tail, and the next day fags were lowered to half staff and New Orleans schoolchildren were let out to attend his burial in the infeld next to Pan Zareta. It is extraordinary when a racetrack acquiesces to such a thing, but in all likelihood it had something to do with the old Kentucky colonel E. R. Bradley, owner of Idle Hour Farm, where Black Gold was sired by his own famous Black Toney. Bradley had purchased the Fair Grounds racetrack a year earlier, and in 1924 he sat in an owner's box at Churchill Downs along with Rosa Hoots when Black Gold whipped three of his other prized horses in the Kentucky Derby. Nobody ever said E. R. Bradley was anything but a gentleman. In 1972 Pan Zareta was inducted into the National Museum of Racing's Hall of Fame, and Black Gold followed her there in 1989. Since then, the Fair Grounds has had its ups and downs, having been destroyed by fre in 1993 and rebuilt, then wrecked by Hurricane Katrina, forcing its racing season to move for a year to the Louisiana Downs in Bossier City. Today the races are back in the location they have occupied for nearly 150 years. But racing fans no longer have to wonder, as I did as a boy, about those little monuments in the infeld. During the winter season at the Fair Grounds, Black Gold was memorialized in a ceremony, and fowers were placed on his grave before the fftieth running of the 5½ Furlong Black Gold Stakes. It was a ftting tribute to an Irishman's dream and to the small, valiant "Indian Horse" who was mistreated at the last, but always gave whatever he could, right up to the end. Spring 2013 . Tempus-Magazine.com 75