2io Making the American Thoroughbred 



her own time at Nashville: in one she ran in 7:45 7:48 

 (better than Eclipse in his race with Henry) and in the 

 other, 8:09 and 8:00. Her winnings in the four races 

 were respectively, $1,000, $300, $600 and $5,500; her 

 total winnings being $42,400. She was still owned and 

 run by Thomas Kirkman. 



Th.e contest between Fashion and Peytona took place 

 at the Union Course on May 13, 1845. It was at first 

 proposed to make it a post match and for $20,000 a side, 

 but as Fashion was the only horse at the North that could 

 contend with any chance of success against Peytona, her 

 owner deemed it his duty to the public to decline giving 

 his consent to such an arrangement. Subsequently he 

 consented to her running a match against any named 

 horse for $10,000 a side, 4-mile heats. Forfeit money, 

 $2,500, was put up and on the day before that set for the 

 race the parties met at the Astor House and each deposited 

 $10,000 with J. Prescott Hall, President of the New York 

 Jockey Club. 



Because of the distance between the contracting parties 

 it had required a long time to arrange all the details of 

 the race. One of the men most deeply interested on the 

 side of Fashion had gone over the entire road from New 

 York to New Orleans three times, and a large portion of 

 it twenty times. 



Fashion and Peytona, by their conquests in other 

 fields, having added lustre to the fame of the great horses 

 from whom they descended, had now come, in the logical 

 order of events, to try it out with each other in a fifth great 

 match on the ground made memorable by the four great 

 matches of the preceding twenty years. The Union Course 

 was twelve miles from New York and a bridgeless river 

 flowed between them. There was only one railway between 

 East River and the race track and its capacity was limited 



