Democratic Sentinel, Volume 3, Number 30, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 September 1879 — Colors of Thoroughbred Horses. [ARTICLE]

Colors of Thoroughbred Horses.

The modern thoroughbred horse is most commonly bay, frequently chestnut, less frequently brown, rarely black, and still more rarely roan, and scarcely ever gray. Cecil, an authority, writing in 1855, calculated in the previous thirty years the Derby had been won by sixteen bays, seven chestnuts and seven browns; the St. Leger by seventeen bays, eight browns and five chestnuts. Since 1855 the proportionate number of bays has been maintained, the number of chestnats has increased, the number of browns diminished, and no gray or roan has won either of these

great stakes. Gustavns, a gray, won the Derby in 1821, and Frederick, another gray, won the same race in 1829 —nothing of that color since. There has been no gray horse of repute since Chanticleer, who, at 4 or 5 years old, in 1847 and 1848, won many royal plates, the Goodwood stakes and the Doncaster cup. There were only two grey stallions named in the Racing Calendar of 1872—Master Bagot, an iron gray, and Strathconan, a light gray, descended from Chanticleer, through his dam. —Book of the Horse.