In Black Gold (1957), beloved children’s author Marguerite Henry offers a fictionalized account of the life of Black Gold, a small stallion with a big heart, who won the Kentucky Derby in 1924. Henry is renowned for her books based on true animal stories of all kinds, but she is best known for her horse stories. Henry won the Newbery Medal for King of the Wind: The Story of the Godolphin Arabian, and a Newbery Honor Award for Misty of Chincoteague. In Black Gold, Henry depicts the stallion’s journey from foal to professional racehorse, focusing on the two people in Black Gold’s life who shaped his career: trainer Hanley Webb and jockey Jaydee Mooney. The story of Black Gold highlights values of courage and perseverance, encouraging readers to never give up their dreams. Spirited illustrations by Wesley Dennis bring Black Gold’s story to life. Black Gold was nominated for a Dorothy Canfield Fisher Children’s Book Award in 1959. Black Gold begins in 1909, alternating between the life stories of young John David “Jaydee” Mooney, as he grows up in New Orleans, and Al Hoots, a rancher in the new state of Oklahoma. Hoots watches a tiny, plain-looking filly lose a close race to a much larger horse. The filly, U-see-it, has a spirit about her that Hoots admires. He trades 80 acres of land for her and takes U-see-it home to his ranch and his Osage Indian wife, Rosa. U-see-it becomes Hoots’s favorite filly, and he picks an old friend, Hanley Webb, or “Old Man Webb,” to be her trainer. U-see-it thrives under Hoots’s care, growing into a sturdy mare. She also wins races. After 34 wins, Rosa wants Hoots to bring U-see-it home to retire her as a winner. But Hoots has one last race planned. U-see-it loses the claiming race at a dusty track in Juarez, Mexico. In a claiming race, the losing horses are available for purchase. Despite a previous agreement, an agent for another owner buys U-see-it. Hoots refuses to give the horse up, and as punishment, the race officials bar Hoots from racing U-see-it and strike her name from the Thoroughbred Registry. Hoots, Webb, and U-see-it return to Oklahoma, but Hoots dreams of breeding U-see-it and taking her foal to win the Kentucky Derby. Meanwhile, Jaydee Mooney works hard in New Orleans to help support his family. His father is a cemetery sexton, and Jaydee loves caring for the team of horses that pulls the funeral hearse. Jaydee teaches himself to ride bareback, matching his movements to those of the horses. When is father dies, Jaydee eventually gets work at the local racetrack, Fair Grounds Park. Jaydee wants to be a professional jockey, and quickly rises to become an apprentice, and then a freelance jockey. Thanks to the oil boom in Oklahoma, Hoots and Rosa earn enough money to send U-see-it to Kentucky to be bred. Unfortunately, Hoots dies before this happens, but Rosa carries out his wishes. U-see-it is bred to the winning stallion, Black Toney. Since U-see-it is a sprinter, and Black Toney is known for his endurance, they should produce a winning foal. On February 17, 1921, U-see-it gives birth to a small colt that Rosa names Black Gold. The colt is all black with a white heart shape on his forehead. Fortunately, the Registry restores U-see-it’s name, so Black Gold will be able to race anywhere. In Lexington, Kentucky, Old Man Webb moves into a stall next to Black Gold and with the help of his Indian friend, Chief Johnson, begins training the colt to race as a two-year-old. The paths of Jaydee and Black Gold cross in New Orleans. Though training another horse, Jaydee sees Black Gold and cannot get him out of his mind. He follows Old Man Webb and the colt back to Lexington, watching as Black Gold is knocked to his knees during a race but gets up and goes on to win. Jaydee tells Old Man Webb that he wants to be Black Gold’s rider, saying he knows how to make Black Gold win consistently. Old Man Webb eventually agrees. Jaydee learns to give Black Gold his head. The horse responds to Jaydee’s approach and begins winning races. Four days before the Kentucky Derby, Jaydee notices that Black Gold is favoring his left front foot. Despite his soreness, despite being bumped into the rail and boxed in by other horses, despite being forced to run wide, Black Gold wins the Derby. The governor calls Black Gold “a little stallion who raced big.” Old Man Webb thinks Black Gold can never lose and enters him in race after race without rest, blaming any losses on track conditions or Jaydee’s timing. Jaydee wants to rest Black Gold. He discovers a crack in the stallion’s hoof. A blacksmith makes a corrective plate for Black Gold’s horseshoe, but that does not solve the problem. Black Gold needs rest and a simple operation. Jaydee can’t bear to see Old Man Webb keep racing Black Gold on his injured foot and decides to leave. Old Man Webb promises to give Black Gold the operation. Jaydee goes to Canada and works briefly as a trainer but returns to find that Black Gold did not receive the corrective surgery. Furious, Jaydee leaves for good. Old Man Webb thinks he can still race Black Gold. While racing in the Salome Purse, gaining on the front runners, Black Gold’s leg snaps above his ankle. He keeps running and crosses the finish line on “three legs and a heart.” Black Gold is euthanized. The stallion is buried in the centerfield of Fair Grounds Park. Old Man Webb is heartbroken. In Canada, Jaydee feels his anger at the old man give way to sympathy. Henry concludes by describing the tradition, still held today, of how the winning jockey of the annual Black Gold Stakes always places his victory wreath on Black Gold’s grave.

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Marguerite Henry

Middle grade

Novel

Fiction

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Black Gold

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