In Kentucky

Five horses, flying down the home stretch in the Kentucky Derby, flashed across the finish line almost neck to neck. Two of these five might have won if the race had been shorter. Two others might have won if the race had been longer. But the horse that did win was produced from behind at just the moment to capture the prize--which, after all, is exactly what the others were trying to do at that particular second.

The Winner. Black Gold, so-called Pride of the West, won by a scant half-length. The three horses who were given the other prize-money places were also Western horses. Thus the East found itself totally eclipsed. The time of the mile and a quarter race (2 min. 5 1/5 sec.) was 1 4/5 seconds slower than the record made in 1914 by Old Rosebud. The track was fast; the day, fair.

The Field. Almost at Black Gold's neck raced Chilhowee, owned by the Gallaher brothers of Louisville. A nose behind him was E. R. Bradley's Beau Butler, a horse that jumped from tenth place to a near winner in the last quarter of a mile. Had he gone on--or, for that matter, had C. Bruce Head's Altawood gone on-- perhaps the result would have been different.

The official judgment angered several newspaper men who thought that Bracadale, the Rancocas entry, ridden by the famed Earl Sande, earned fourth place. Bracadale led the way for most of the mile and a quarter. At the turn before the home stretch he showed signs of weakening. Sande, former jockey of the great Zev, used all his wiles to urge Bracadale on.

The favorites before the race were: for the East, Bracadale and Mad Play, owned by Harry F. Sinclair of Manhattan; for the West, Black Gold, owned by Mrs. R. M. Hoots, an Indian woman of Tulsa, and Chilhowee. The entries of Harry Payne Whitney were also looked on with favor by Easterners. They were Transmute and Klondyke. Neither of these did well.

The Jockeys. Black Gold was ridden by J.D. Mooney, New Orleans boy. Mooney, hitherto little known, rode a perfect race. He got his mount out of a bad "pocket" of horses at the first turn, he took him from sixth place to third on the five furlong* back stretch, and he brought him in a winner in the last quarter of a mile. Sande, who rode Zev to a victory over the English horse Papyrus last October, kept Bracadale at a fast pace all the way around the track. He was always in the lead for the first mile. It is possible that he intended to break the spirit of the other horses and clear the way for Bracadale's stablemate, Mad Play, ridden by a well-known jockey, Laverne Fator.

Prizes. This year marked the 50th (Golden Jubilee) anniversary of Kentucky Derby. The purse was $52,775. Second was $6,000; third, $3,000; fourth, $1,000. In addition, a gold cup was given to the owner of the winner and to the winning jockey went the customary pair of gold spurs. Black Gold's trainer received a gold stop watch. The weight carried by the horses was 126 pounds. The event was open only to three-year-olds. Glide, the only fill entered for the race was withdrawn the night before. There were 19 colts competing. Black Gold paid $5.50 on a $2 mutuel ticket.

The Crowd. Estimated at 80,000, the biggest crowd ever to attend a U. S. race-meeting filled the stands and recently enlarged grounds of the Kentucky Jockey Club at Churchill Downs, near Louisville. A pleasing spectacle was made by the gay plumage of both sexes. The night before the race there were many lengthy dances given in Louisville.

Prominent in the stands were: August Belmont, Chairman of the Jockey Club, Charles Dana Gibson, Edward B. McLean, Admiral Gary T. Grayson, Harry Payne Whitney, Mr. and Mrs. Payne Whitney, Harry F. Sinclair, Mrs. W. K. Vanderbilt, II, Joseph E. Widener, George D. Widener, J. S. Cosden, Governor Austin Peay of Tennessee, Herbert Bayard Swope, James Studebaker (South Bend), Thomas Taggart (Indiana), Barney Dreyfuss (Pittsburgh), G. A. Wahlgren (San Francisco), W. A. Pullman (Chicago).

Black Gold, named for the petroleum that has caused so much political scandal, is the black son of Useeit, a so-called "runt" mare, and Black Tony, a thoroughbred of the Idle Hour stables. Useeit was a fast horse, but she was only good for short distances. Her son, however, has her speed and his father's endurance. At the end of his second year Black Gold had won $19,000 in prize money and subsequently he won the Louisville Derby and the Louisiana Derby. His total prize money now amounts to $90,113. He has entered 22 races, won 14, and has failed to place in only two.

His training has not been according to the equine Montessori method. He was developed by a Cherokee Indian named Webb. According to reports, Webb was in the habit of "working his horse to death" and of allowing him to stand uncovered, exposed to the wind. That this was not wilful neglect, is shown by the fact that Webb had been so attentive to his horse that he had even slept beside his stall and had a hole cut through the wall so that he could keep a constant eye on his charge.

The Owner. Mrs. Hoots, an Indian (as was her husband, the former owner of Useeit), made her money as other Indians have, in the Oklahoma oil fields. However, she is not as other wealthy Oklahoma Indians sometimes are. Quiet and unpretentious, she took a room in a boardinghouse near Churchill Downs, spent most of the time at the race-track watching her horse work out. When Black Gold won the Derby she was tremendously excited, that was evident. But she managed to keep a good presence as she went to the judges' stand to receive the coveted prize.

When Jockey Mooney brought his horse back to the judges' stand after the race he was visibly nervous, almost frightened, as the great crowd milled around the winner. Black Gold, on the other hand, was calm and attentive--until a horseshoe of American Beauties was thrown about his sweaty shoulders. Then he began to get excited. Mooney was given, besides the gold spurs, a large sheaf of pink roses.

*A furlong equals 1/8 mile.