When mature, Chicado V stood tall. She was a brown mare, with a connected star, stripe, and snip on her face as her only markings, or identifying marks. Earl Holmes, a longtime trainer who started his racing career as a groom for Vessels, had the care of Chicado V after she was born, and said of her that she "was gentle, real gentle—in everything. She was born broke[n]."Quoted in Wyant "Chicado V" Legends 5 p. 219 When she stood in a starting gate for a race, Holmes said she looked like a rabbit, because "she had big ears and that's all you could see, she was so little". She also had a body defect, or conformation fault, in that she had calf-knees.Wyant "Chicado V" Legends 5 p. 220
