Fashion (horse)

Fashion
"Fashion meets Peytona"
Sire	Trustee (GB)
Grandsire	Catton
Dam	Bonnets o' Blue
Damsire	Sir Charles
Sex	Mare
Foaled	1837
Country	United States
Colour	Chestnut
Breeder	William Gibbons
Owner	1. William Gibbons 2. John Reber
Trainer	Samuel Laird
Record	36: 32-4-0
Earnings	$41,500
Honours
National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame inductee

Fashion (1837–1860), was a Thoroughbred four-mile (6,400 meter) racemare that defeated Boston and set a record of 7:32½, for that distance, before the American Civil War. Until her meeting with Peytona, Fashion had started 24 times, and won 23 races, 14 of which were of four-mile heats, 6 of 3-mile heats and 3 of 2-mile heats for earnings of $35,600.

She was sired by Trustee out of Bonnets o' Blue.

Owned and bred by William Gibbons in Madison, New Jersey (the farm was located on land that today accommodates Drew University), the chestnut Fashion was considered the best race mare of her generation, or any generation that came before her. In 36 starts, Fashion won 32 times and defeated Boston twice. She was sired by Trustee (foaled in Great Britain in 1829) out of Bonnets o' Blue (foaled in 1827 and by Sir Charles by Sir Archy). Trustee was taken out of retirement at the age of twenty to prove to the young folks how good he had been in his racing days. At that age, he ran a four-mile heat in eight minutes flat. Bonnets O'Blue won the National Colt Stakes and a $10,000 match race against Goliah, by Eclipse, over the Union Course in 1831. Her dam was Reahty, by Sir Archy, making Bonnets O'Blue inbred to Sir Archy (by Diomed) in the second generation.

In Fashion's day, races were four miles (6,400 meters) long and run in grueling heats with each heat usually covering four miles. These races were not contested on tracks; they could be set anywhere the race organizers decided to set them.

William Gibbons was a modest man who only raced horses he'd bred himself, and he never bet. He disliked ostentation, but the public demand for Fashion's match races was huge and he gave in to their pressure more than once. It is said that 70,000 people showed up for the match between Boston and Fashion. Carrier pigeons carried the news of each heat to New York City newspapers.