If you pretend that this movie has nothing to do with the real 1924 Kentucky Derby winner Black Gold or his Cherokee connections, you probably won't hate it. Black Gold was a real horse, owned by Rosa Hoots (Rosa being a Cherokee from the Oklahoma reservations). Her husband Al's dream was to breed his mare to one of the finest stallions in Kentucky, but he died before achieving it. His wife, who became wealthy as part of her share in the Cherokee's oil wealth, honored his wishes and the resultant foal was named Black Gold after the oil. Black Gold was most famous for winning the fiftieth anniversary of the Kentucky Derby. His jockey was not a Chinese immigrant but an American-born Irish rider named J.D. Mooney. His trainer was a man named Webb. After Black Gold proved a failure at stud he was brought back to racing at age six, where he broke down and had to be euthanized. Webb swore he ran the horse in good faith, thinking he was not so injured he would hurt himself. The truth of this is open to debate. The film's portrayal was considered so negative by the real connections they initially refused to speak to author Marguerite Henry when she was researching her 1957 book. The book wound up the inverse of the movie, highly favorable to all characters. It would be nice to have this on DVD to be able to compare. The horse's true story is likely in between.
Review of Black Gold
Black Gold
(1947)
This is why the book "Black Gold" almost didn't get written.
5 May 2010
Warning: Spoilers