ABSTRACT
Four North/South horse races had already been run before the great contest in 1845, that of Fashion vs. Peytona. Earlier in 1823, the northern horse Eclipse beat the southern Sir Heniy in part setting up the final determining series of races. Twice a northern horse had won and twice a southern. So it remained for either Fashion or Peytona to break the tie. The Long Island races in New York hosted the glorious duel with spectators lining the course before 8 a.m. Trains from every direction brought in more people. The morning hours passed slowly as the scene grew gayer. A New York Herald reporter described the festivities:
Business in the tents–the wigwams–the culinary camps and conventicles commenced at an early hour, and was carried on with a briskness that betimes looked like voracity, and fears were occasionally excited that the impetuosity of the hungry crowd might find a melancholy end in the prodigious tubs of lemonade and brandy punch that lay in elegant negligence around the tables, whose extended surfaces supported masses of ham, sandwiches, lobsters, loaves, decanters, glasses, and all the paraphernalia of drinking that could be condensed into the space.
