Tazewell Republican. [volume] (Tazewell, Va.) 1892-1919, 1901-05-09
AN EQUINE ROMANCE.
Loss of Mare for Which Horsemen
Would Pay Much.
SILK Gown, the Dam of a Famous
Thoroughbred Race Horse, Lost
Track of Through Lack
of Interest.

VI all Jne rOmanceS winch nave Deen
woven about the equine race none is
charged with more interest than that
which within a few days has been
developed in the Blue Grass region of
Kentucky-that region from which
comes the feetest and most graceful
and most famous of American race
horses. 1t all has to do with the
passing of mare, Six Gown by name,
daughter of Longfellow, who was
giant among thoroughbreds-one of
those racehorses of a generation ago
about whose mighty deeds the turf
horsemen now fast sliding down the
other side of the hill of life love to
linger and gossip. Bred royalty as
this mare was, it is extremely i'm
probable that her name now would
occupy the attention of horsemen to
such a great extent, but for the fact
that two years ago she produced
handsome brown foal. That foal first
came to the races in the spring of
this year-a two-year-old, and two
year-old of sterling worth, well made
and well muscled, with stride anc
a heart that carried him to victory in
many a hard-fought race on the fash
ionable tracks east and west, in
New York and on the Chicago courses.
Before the season had run more than
half of its course his owner had re-
fused $4,000 for him-a price vastly
in excess of the amount which he paid
for him. Possessed of great speed and
rare courage, Garry Hermann was
colt to be reckoned with in any COM
pany, and so the thousands who wit
messed his performances reckoned.
When his worth had been developed,
owners and trainers and breeders be-
gan to inquire into his pedigree. They
found that he was Esher, out of Silk
Gown, the mare through whose veins
courseu the blood of Longfellow. 1.-THE
mare that can produce such grand
colt as Garry Hermann is worth hav-
ing" some of them argued, relates the
Louisville Courier-Journal.
Now deep and genuine interest in
Silk Gown has developed. An owner
who had an idea of buying the mare
went to Lexington. He made inquir-
les about her and learned that the
mares identity had been destroyed;
that she had been sold as worthless,
brand fit only to be cast into the
fire. When this fact was made public
a sort of still alarm was sent out over
the country for Silk Gown. The dam
of one of Americas best young horses
now may be drawing plow or
truck, or performing some mental
equine service, from which her royal
breeding and the services of her dis
tinguished son shoulu have preserved
her. It is as If the son of Wander
bilt or an Astor revelled in luxury
while his mother was without roof to
shelter her or food to keep life in
her. 1t is an equine tragedy-pos-
sessed of more bathos than pathos to
the average man, but not so to the
genuine horseman.
Silk Gowns undoing-her Danish
ment from the pastures in which she
nurtured the now famous Garry Her
mann-came about in this way: Two
years ago the breeders of the country
organized the Breeders Protective as
ISOLATION. The object of the associa-
ton was to improve the thorough
bred-to make him stouter of heart,
sounder of limb, sturdier and speed
Ter. If the breeders could do this,
their own interests would be advanced
and the product of their studs in
creased in value. Wisely or unwisely,
they decided that as a first means
to this end they should begin at
home-have a sort of house cleaning
and send to the auctloneer's block
mares which had a cold "cross" on
them. or which had outlived their use
fitness. When the lineage of thor
oughbred cannot be traced back to
the fountainhead, or in the pedigree
there is cross of horse that is not
thoroughbred, that mare or horse
is said to have "cold cross" The
mares of which these breeders had
decided to rid themselves and the
, turf were to be sold without pedi'
GREE and were to be debarred from the
turf forever. They were doomed tc
exchange the drowsy life in the pas
lures of Kentucky for some fate that
of necessity must be strange and un
kindly.
In the band of cast-offs led into the
sale ring in Kentucky last fall was
silk Gown. She had produced Garry
Hermann in 1898. Last year she was
barren. She was II years old. anf
: her owner, Kinzea Stone, Of George
. town, KY, believing that the days G.
her usefulness inethe stud had passed