Okay, so here is a pretty dramatic story about some of Hailee's more colorful relatives. Al Hoots was this crazy old guy who had a very heartful mare, Useeit. He dragged her all over the West and Louisiana to race and she returned his confidence by winning 34 of her starts for him. In 1916, he took her to Juarez, Mexico and ran in her in a claiming race, thinking that he'd gotten everyone to agree not to claim her. A gentleman named Ramsey tried to claim her, and Hoots held him off by riflepoint and ran off with his little mareThen the next year, 1917, on his deathbed, he told his Osage Nation wife, Rosa, to breed his mare to Black Toney a famous horse owned by Colonel Bradley of Idle Hour Stock Farm. What a joke! A poor family being able to have the money to breed to that Kentucky wealth! But Hoots said that he'd had a vision, "I see this foal, possessed of an undaunted spirit of a mother descended from horses which admitted defeat only in death."
So, guess what? An oil boon! The Osage Nation in Oklahoma struck it rich and Rosa Hoots, now a widow, was able to send Useeit to Black Toney, and their baby, Black Gold, a beautiful black foal, was born in 1921. He won like crazy. He raced 35: 18-5-4. And when he was 3, he won the Kentucky Derby, Lousiana Derby, Chicago Derby, and Ohio Derby. He didn't race in the Preakness or Belmont because we hadn't developed that as the cultural standard, the Triple Crown yet!
Now the sad part -- He was retired to stud at 4, but was found to be sterile. So, they sent him back to the track. He raced in pain with a hoof injury, and then at the New Orleans Fair Grounds, he gave his full heart to win, though he was past his prime. He broke his leg, but still tried to win and finished the race with his champion heart and on three legs. He was put to sleep there in New Orleans and is buried in the Fair Grounds infield. He died in 1928. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1989, and now the grandchildren of Rosa Hoots are trying to start a business to remember this great horse.
His only child was struck and killed by lightning, but my beautiful Hailee carries Black Gold's blood through his closest relation, his full brother, Beggar Boy, born in 1924, 3 short years after Black Gold. He had a nice long life, passing away in 1945 at the age of 21!
You can read more about this famous family of horses at the following links:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Gold_(horse)
or
http://www.blackgold1924.com/
or
http://www.spiletta.com/UTHOF/blackgold.html
or
http://www.racingmuseum.org/hall/horse.asp?ID=31