J. D. Mooney

The chapter begins with a biographical sketch of J. D. Mooney and how he became involved in racing, showing the normal training and progression of an ordinary jockey. After outlining Mooney's primary characteristics as a rider, it then turns to the cycle of reducing to make riding weight, the bane of most jockeys, and the constant threat of injury and death with which they lived. The chapter continues by exploring the rift that had developed between J. D. Mooney and Hanley Webb, which led to Webb's refusal to consider Mooney as a rider for his colt, and concludes with Mooney's increasing suspicions of human conspiracy as the cause of much of Black Gold's "bad luck."