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Fashion
One of the great mares from the pre-Civil War era, Fashion was bred and owned by William Gibbons of New Jersey. However, her first three dams were all bred by Colonel William R. Johnston, who had raced Bonnets o’ Blue, herself a good race mare for co-owners Johnston and John C. Craig of Philadelphia. When Bonnets o’ Blue retired, Craig bought out Johnston’s interest for $2,000, later selling the mare to Gibbons. *Trustee, the sire of Fashion, was imported to the United States as a six-year-old in 1835. After many years of a nomadic stud career that took him through New York, Virginia, and Kentucky, he was put back into training at age twenty after questions arose as to how good he had really been as a racer. Even at that advanced age, he proved able to run a four-mile heat in eight minutes flat and was promptly re-retired. He eventually died in New York at the age of 27, having also sired the good racehorse and stallion Revenue and the important broodmare Levity. An attractive, beautifully balanced chestnut with an excellent disposition, Fashion won her only two starts at three, both over two miles. At four, she won four of her five starts, but the important one was a race over four-mile heats at Camden, New Jersey on October 28, 1841, in which she faced the great Boston for the first time. Boston, the hero of American racing at that time, was probably not in prime condition. He was eight years old, had covered over forty mares that spring, and was coming off a hard fought victory at Baltimore. Nonetheless, he was a heavy favorite, and his many fans were aghast when Fashion easily distanced him in the second heat. (In the racing customs of the day, a pole was set up at a set distance – in a four-mile heat, typically about 170 yards out – from the finish line; a horse that failed to pass this pole before the winner of a heat had crossed the finish line was said to have been “distanced” and was disqualified from any further heats. A horse that just managed to pass the distance pole in time was said to have “saved his distance.”) An outcry demanding a rematch immediately arose. Boston’s owners were quite willing, but Gibbons was more reluctant, not caring much for match races. He finally agreed, and the match was set for the Union Race Course on Long Island, New York, on May 10, 1842. The purse was $20,000, winner take all, but was dwarfed by the huge sums of money being wagered on both sides. Most match races in Thoroughbred history have been lopsided affairs, with good reason. It is nearly impossible to guarantee that two horses will arrive at the same prearranged point in time and space equally fit and ready to go, but that is what a match race demands. Almost always, as it turns out, one of the rivals will come into the race in better form that the other and that will be that. The most notorious examples of the modern era were probably the Armed–Assault match in 1947 and the Nashua–Swaps match in 1955, both of which turned into one-sided routs thanks to soundness problems plaguing the losing horses. The Fashion-Boston match race was no exception to the rule; given that the race had been arranged over five months in advance, it was remarkable that both contestants even made it to the starting line. As an aged male, Boston, who carried 126 pounds, was required to concede Fashion fifteen pounds. She probably did not need the concession. The race was essentially decided in the first heat, which Fashion won by a length after Boston, racing on the inside, had gashed his hip on the rail. In the second heat, Boston was pulled up by his jockey after saving his distance when it became apparent that he would never catch Fashion, leaving the mare to coast in uncontested. It was considered the only time in Boston’s career that he was beaten on his merits, though he had lost races due to sulking in the past. Fashion took three months off after the match and did not re-emerge until the fall, when she won two more races and walked over for a third because no other horse was entered to face her. She went unbeaten through her next two seasons, taking thirteen consecutive races, and by that time was the most popular racehorse of her day, with everything from hotels to a brand of molasses named for her. In 1845, a new challenger came on the scene. This was Peytona, a huge mare said to stride 27 feet and already the world’s leading money winner for her sex although she had raced but five times. The source of most of her bankroll was a much-ballyhooed produce race (in which the runners had been nominated as unborn foals) at Nashville, Tennessee, which had been worth some $35,000 to the winner. Six years old in 1845, Peytona was unbeaten; Fashion, now eight, had lost only once, and that as a four-year-old. A match race was arranged between the mares for $10,000 a side at the Union Course on May 15, 1845. Fashion may have been at something of a disadvantage, as she was reportedly in heat on the morning of the race and may have had her mind on matters other than running. She also had to concede the much larger Peytona seven pounds, carrying 123 pounds to the younger mare’s 116. Nonetheless, she made Peytona work hard for victory, losing in two straight heats but by only about a length each time. Peytona’s victory proved a costly one, for she came out of the race with inflamed forefeet. The two mares were slated to meet again four days later, but Peytona was forced to withdraw and Fashion won in a trot. Nine days later, the two met at Camden, New Jersey, but this second meeting was anticlimactic; Peytona, probably still not fully recovered from her foot problem, made no real showing, and Fashion’s jockey pulled her up before crossing the finish line so as to allow Peytona to save her distance. Fashion then rested until the fall, when she won one more race before retiring for the winter. Fashion raced on for three more seasons. Unbeaten in three starts at nine, she raced only twice at ten, winning once. Public outcry was aroused when the great mare was sent out again at age eleven, but she did acquit herself quite respectably, winning twice and finishing second to the much younger Bostona, a daughter of her old rival Boston. Fashion finally retired having won thirty-two of her thirty-six starts and has been rated by many racing historians as the best American race mare of the pre-Civil War era. Fashion produced seven foals before her death in 1860. Several were winners but none were able to match her own ability, although she still has descendants through her daughter Young Fashion. Still, her memory lingers on in the annual running of the Fashion Stakes – somewhat ironically, a five-furlong dash for juvenile fillies at Belmont Park – and at the National Museum of Racing Hall of Fame, where she joined her fellow immortals of the Turf in 1980. © 2005 by Avalyn Hunter |
