Luisa Casati

The logical connection between the name of this winning filly and the name of her dam would have been crystal-clear in the first decades of the twentieth century--at least in Paris, Venice and London. Italian-born Marchesa Luisa Casati (1881-1957) was a high society celebrity with strong links to diverse characters in the worlds of art, fashion and literature. In fact, such connections seem to be infinite, as they include: celebrated painter August John (painted her and loved her), poet Ezra Pound (wrote about her), beat writer Jack Kerouac (mentioned her...