The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1901-01-14

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 a stride and heart
That carried him to victory in many
| hardfought race on the fashionable
/ tracks east and west, here in New York
and on the Chicago courses Before the
season had run more than half of its
course his owner had refused $40 600 for
him-a price vastly in excess of the
amount which he paid for him. Pos
sessed of great speed and rare courage,
Garry Hermann was a colt to be reck-
oned with in any company, and so the
thousands who witnessed his perform
ances reckoned. When his worth had
been developed the owners and train
ers and breeders began to inquire into
his pedigree. They found that he was
by Esher, out of SILK Gown, the mare
through whose veins coursed the blood
of Longfellow The mare that can
produce such a colt as Garry Hermann
is worth having" some of them agued
Last week deep and genuine interest
in SILK Gown was developed. An own
er who had an idea of buying the mare
went to Lexington. He made inquiries
about her and learned that the mares
identity had been destroyed; that she
had been sold as worthless, a brand fit
only to be cast into the fire. When
this fact was made public sort Of
still alarm was sent over the country
for Silk Gown. The dam of one of
Americas best racing horses now may
be drawing a plow or a truck, or per-
forming some mental equine service,
from which her royal breeding and the
services of her distinguished son should
have preserved her. 1t Is as If the son
Of a Vanderbilt 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 Punishment
from the pastures in which she nurtured
the now famous Gerry Hermann-came
about in this way. Two years ago the
breeders of the country organized the
Breeders Protective association. The
object Of the association was to inn
prove the thoroughbred-to make him
speedier If the breeders could do this
their own interests would be advanced
and the product of their studs increased
in value, Wisely or unwisely, they de-
cided that as first means to this end
they should begin a home-have a sort
Of cloo 1.-Two nd -,
tioneer's block mares which had a cold
''cross" on them. or which had outlived
their usefulness. When the lineage of
thoroughbred cannot be traced back
to the fountain-head, or in the pedigree
there is a cross of horse that is not
thoroughbred, that mare or horse Ia
said to have cold cross" The mares
of which these breeders had decided to
rid themselves and the turf We're to be
sold without ped gree and were to be
debarred from the turf forever They
were doomed to exchange the drowsy
life in the pastures of Kentucky for
some fate that of necessity must be
strange and unkindly.
In the band of cast-offs led into the
sale ring in Kentucky last fall was silk
Gown. She had produced Barry Her
mann in 1898, Last year she was bar
rem. She was II years old, and her
owner, Kinzea Stone of Georgetown,
Ky, believing that the days of her use
fulness in the stud had passed. CON
signed her to outer darkness, SO far as
thoroughbreds are concerned. Hence
forth she was to bear a brand which
would debar her from the thoroughbred
world. J. o. Chenault, acting for that
bought her for S35. Shorn
Of her pedigree and without mark of
any kind to distinguish her save the
mark which the branding iron made
when she was doomed to be banished
from the turf, she was shipped to St
Louis and again sold at auction. What
price she brought at this SALE who sold
her or what has become of her is not
and it maybe never will be
known, because neither the man who |
sold her nor the man who bought her
knew anything about her. In all prob |
ability Silk Gown has passed from the |
stage forever.
SO 1t has come to pass that some |
where in this broad land some poor
'armer or truck driver or huckster has |
an old mare which he would be willing |
10 exchange for s25, but which if he
could establish her identity would be |
nothlns short of gold mine to him. |
one buyer in Kentucky last week said |
mat he gladly would give 5000 for Silk |
Town II she could be found and her
IDENTIFY established. He is not the only |
lorseman in the country who would be
glad to give a handsome price for the |
mare, but unfortunately for Silk Gown.
While she may be honored and sung,
ana while Garry Hermann may add