It’s a sad song. It’s a sad tale, it’s a tragedy. It’s a sad song. We’re gonna sing it anyway. – 2019 Tony Award-winning musical “Hadestown” Black Gold’s story is tragic. The game little black horse died at Fair Grounds after breaking down in January 1928, racing through lameness and past his prime. It was a failure on the part of the humans in his life – and a coda to the tragedy in their own lives. Rosa Hoots, credited as the first woman to both breed and own a Derby winner, lost her husband, Al Hoots, to illness. The Oklahoma Osage then lived through a period of turmoil, including the race riots in nearby Tulsa and the killings of Osages over rights to oil royalties, depicted in last year’s acclaimed film “Killers of the Flower Moon.” Trainer Hanly Webb – as his name is rendered in the official Kentucky Derby chart – was described as a “desperately lonely” man. After Black Gold, he quickly disappeared from racing publications and became so obscured by history that his name is rendered in various ways – as Hedley in “The Kentucky Derby: The First 100 Years” by Peter Chew; Hanley in the Hall of Fame and in Derby historian Jim Bolus’s “Derby Magic”; and even as Harry in various newspaper articles of the time. But this tragedy also had a triumph. Big dreams led to Black Gold’s birth and to his victory in the “Golden Jubilee” Kentucky Derby of 1924. In this way, they all live on a century later. Triumph under the twin spires Al Hoots dabbled in low-level Thoroughbred ownership before acquiring his best mare, Useeit – whose life could be a full-length story of its own. The stakes winner was trained by his friend Webb. Her career ended in a claiming race in Juarez, when it was said there was a gentlemen’s agreement not to claim someone’s single-horse stable, but a slip was put in for Useeit anyway. Whether Hoots ran the other owner off with a rifle, snuck away with his mare overnight, or intimidated the racing stewards is a point of debate, but the end result was Hoots and Useeit being banned from the tracks. :: DRF Kentucky Derby Package: Save on PPs, Clocker Reports, Betting Strategies, and more. Hoots dreamed of Useeit’s foals seeking glory, but became seriously ill before that could come to fruition. It is said that before his death in 1917, he extracted a deathbed promise from his wife that she would breed Useeit to Black Toney, the premier stallion of the time, and race their resulting foal in the Kentucky Derby. After Useeit had a few other foals, Rosa Hoots found the means to send the mare to Black Toney when oil was discovered on her land, which she stood in position to profit from through a deal with the U.S. government that allowed Osage tribal members to retain mineral rights on their lands. Rosa Hoots named the resulting foal, born in February 1921, Black Gold after the riches that made his life possible. She sent Webb to train him. Webb was described in Chew’s book as “an old lonely man” and a hard drinker. He also was described in various articles as an “old school” trainer, which can mean anything from no-nonsense and unsentimental to hard-hearted and strict. “In his own way, he was fond of Black Gold,” Chew wrote. “But he trained and raced his horses brutally hard . . . .Webb, it was said, trained Thoroughbreds as though they were mustangs.” Black Gold won 9 of 18 starts in a hickory 2-year-old campaign, then his first four starts as a 3-year-old prior to the Kentucky Derby. He splashed home by six lengths in the mud in the Louisiana Derby, then dominated the Derby Trial a few days before the big event at Churchill Downs, where Webb had requested three stalls – one for Black Gold, one for stable pony Tuscola, and one for himself to sleep in. Along with Rosa Hoots and Webb, the team included jockey John D., or J.D., Mooney. He had been keen on Black Gold while riding against him the year before and finally persuaded Webb to give him the mount. Success followed, and so optimistic of Derby success was Mooney that he turned down other mounts that week, lest he risk injury. On Derby Day, May 17, 1924, crowds began queuing up seven or eight hours before the gates opened, and some 80,000 people jammed beneath the twin spires and in the Churchill infield. :: Get the Inside Track with the FREE DRF Morning Line Email Newsletter. Subscribe now.  “There was not one of these that could not tell you all about” the field, Daily Racing Form wrote. “They are the real enthusiasts that have been looking forward to this day of days all through the long winter months. With them the Derby is more than an institution, it is a religion. To miss a Derby would be a gap that would never be filled.” After cloud cover early, a sunny day emerged, and the track was fast. Rosa Hoots, inconspicuous in a gray dress patterned with roses and a black straw hat looked on, as Webb and Tuscola took Mooney and Black Gold to post. Black Gold broke from the rail in the field of 19 and quickly was in trouble as Bracadale, cutting over from post 12 seeking the early lead, bumped him hard. Black Gold found himself bottled up through the first turn. Up front, Bracadale was a clear leader down the backstretch and held that two-length lead into the far turn. “Then Black Gold began to move,” Daily Racing Form wrote. “As he forged through the field, he met with some interference and was for a moment blocked, but Mooney took him outside where he had racing room and he quickly made up the ground.” Turning for home, Black Gold was in third as Chilhowee poked a head in front of Bracadale with a furlong to go. Black Gold charged on the outside through the stretch and edged clear of Chilhowee for a half-length win. Black Gold “won it in race-horse style after a rough race, displaying rare determination,” John Hervey wrote in “Racing in America.” The final time was 2:05 1/5. Black Gold, who returned $5.50 to his backers, earned $52,775. In the official chart, Chilhowee held second by a nose over Beau Butler, with Altawood and Bracadale next. But Daily Racing Form wrote that it was actually Bracadale, hidden inside in similar silks, who held third. ‘Three legs and a heart’ Black Gold went on to romp in the Ohio Derby and Chicago Derby, becoming the first horse to win derbies in four states. But later that year, previous soundness problems returned and he was diagnosed with a blind quarter crack and retired. He proved mostly infertile, and the only foal he did sire was killed by lightning. Black Gold returned to training in 1927, with reports that the Hoots family had fallen on hard financial times and speculation that Webb’s drinking problem was worsening. Mooney was semi-retired from riding and was training in Canada when Webb wrote, expressing a belief Black Gold could return to his best form and asking him to ride. According to Bolus in “Derby Magic,” Mooney diplomatically turned him down, citing training responsibilities and suggesting the horse be retired. Black Gold started three times in December 1927, with his best effort a fourth. His soundness problems were noticed by the public. Daily Racing Form’s chart for one of his efforts, stating, “Black Gold raced forwardly for three-quarters, then tired and finished lame.” But the era was essentially without veterinary oversight or recourse. :: KENTUCKY DERBY 2024: Derby Watch, point standings, prep schedule, news, and more Racing in the Salome Purse in January 1928, Black Gold was attempting to challenge when he catastrophically broke his left foreleg. Despite efforts to pull him up, he fought on. In those final moments of life, Black Gold made an impression on legendary owner Samuel Riddle. Novelist Marguerite Henry was inspired to write about the horse after a conversation with Riddle. In her “Dear Readers and Riders,” Henry recounted that Riddle told her, “His best race was his last when, with his foreleg broken, he finished on three legs and a heart.” And so, after Derby triumph, Black Gold’s story ended in tragedy – as has happened with a handful of other Derby winners while in training. Their names on plaques march around Churchill Downs – Old Rosebud, Swale, Barbaro. Some tragedies might be prevented. Some can’t. It’s a double-edged sword racing knows well. But to remember only the tragedy is to forget who they were, and why they mattered – and why disciples of the Thoroughbred work to protect the names joining the list as it marches on a century later. See, someone’s got to tell the tale. Whether or not it turns out well. Maybe it will turn out this time. :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.