248 The American Tborougbhred 



had come to improve the turf of the North. 

 On the 26th of April, on a farm near Madison, 

 Morris County, New Jersey, in the good year of 

 1837, there was foaled a chestnut filly with a star 

 and a ring of white above the coronet of her left 

 hind foot. On her right quarter she was marked 

 with three dark spots, like Plenipo and other 

 "terribly high-bred cattle." 



They were luck spots, those marks that would 

 have been disfiguring to the non-critical eye ; they 

 were the spots which have distinguished the Lex- 

 ingtons and many of the Diomeds, the spots which 

 distinguished Gray Eagle and other champion 

 horses of the American turf, the spots that you 

 find on a stake winner at Morris Park any of 

 these afternoons. They were conquering signs, 

 those spots, which the Arabs noted in their 

 steeds and marked for good fortune. 



This youngster, wabbling about over there in 

 New Jersey, almost within sight and sound of the 

 great city of New York, was aptly and beautifully 

 named Fashion. She was foaled the property 

 of William Gibbons, Esq., who owned Bonnets o' 

 Blue. Within her were those inborn capacities 

 which were in years to give defeat to the most 

 dominant horse the American turf had seen, and 



