Peytona and Fashion's Great Match

In the mid-19h century, before the more recent rise of football, basketball, and baseball, horse racing was considered America’s most popular sport. This 1845 print conveys the same carnival-like atmosphere that has remained a lasting feature of the “Run for the Roses.” Then, as now, crowds of spectators from every walk of life attended races to cheer and bet on their favorite horses. While fierce competition between jockeys, trainers, and breeders is a timeless feature of the sport, antebellum-era races were fueled by political and sectional tensions. The races were dominated by a concurrent debate between North and South over who was superior in equine breeding and training.

The rivalry extended back to 1823, when Henry, a Southern favorite, was defeated by the Northern champion Eclipse in a well-publicized race. The competition heated in the 1840s, when press and politicians encouraged a series of North/South match races that would capture passions from Maine to Florida. The first of these was held on May 10, 1842, and Fashion, a New Jersey-bred equine superstar, nicknamed “Queen of the Turf,” defeated the Richmond-bred stallion Boston, dubbed “Pride of the South.” Fashion won by thirty five lengths, setting a world record. Inflammatory headlines that followed the contest, such as “Northern Champion Defeats the great Southern Stallion” had Southerners demanding a rematch.

Sensationalized as a “sectional clash,” promoters arranged a new match on Union Course on Long Island, New York, on the same track where the Fashion/Boston race had occured. The Southern champion Peytona, an Alabama-bred chestnut mare, would compete against Fashion for a $20,000 purse. Originally named Glumdalclitch, Peytona was an inexperienced racing mare that had made headlines after setting the record for winning highest single stakes – $35,000 – in Nashville during the fall of 1843. The race took place on May 13, 1845, after Peytona had traveled over 1,500 miles to compete against the eight year-old Fashion.

In this print, the victorious six-year-old Peytona demonstrates her famously long stride in the foreground as Fashion trails behind. The center of the track is crowded with people, carriages, and wagons, but the scene does not begin to convey the true magnitude of the crowds – up to 100,000 attended – as reported in the rich news accounts and diary entries that document the event. One eyewitness laments that views of the race could only be attained at “peril of life and limb,” and numerous accounts complain of traffic jams before and after the race. The New York Herald noted that the booths at the race served all nature of refreshments to thousands of people of every class. Tents no doubt also housed numerous gaming and betting tables. The Herald commissioned eight reporters to cover the race, publishing an advance front-page story as well as four special editions.

Even though the print depicts a victorious Southern horse, it was a popular with sportsmen throughout the country. While this image endured in popular culture, the Southern victory was short lived. Two weeks later, during a rematch in Camden, New Jersey, on Wednesday, May 28th, Fashion beat Peytona, and the Southern champion came up lame. Except for the first Peytona/Fashion match and a few less notable contests, most pre-Civil War matches were usually won by Northern horses. After the Civil War, however, horses from the Bluegrass Region of Kentucky and the rolling hills of Virginia and Maryland’s Hunt Country would fully establish Dixie’s reputation for superior equine breeding.

The lithographic stone for the print was created by the artist Charles Severyn (active 1845-1860) and produced by lithographer Henry R. Robinson (active 1833-1851). Currier & Ives produced their own version of the lithograph from the same Charles Severyn drawing. The “America on Stone” collection also contains a black and white lithograph depicting the event (DL*60.2817), a proof copy produced before text and colors were added. That version appears to be closer to the Currier & Ives version than to the Robinson print.

Currently not on view