The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1866-11-17

TROTTING.
The Attempt to TrOt the Horse Captain
MoGOwen Twenty-One Miles within
the HOur-The Horse Exhausted and
Withdrawn at the End OF the ThIr-
teenth Mile-Time-TabIe of the TrOt-
ting-The Previous Twenty-MiIes-an-
Hour Exploits, Etc.
Boston, November l6.-The great trot against
time to-day by Captain McGowen stamps that
horse as certainly good UNI TO CO." Before
6etal1ng the performance to-day upon the
Riverside Park let me refer for the sake OF
comparison, to some of the horses that have
trotted twenty miles within the hour, and 10
some that have tried and failed to do 1t, and
also the time made by Captain McGowen on the
last day of October OF last year. when he made
twenty miles in tittyeight minutes ana twenty
five seconds.
WHAT HORSES HAVE DONE II.
TrOtting twenty miles an hour has been ac.
complished by three horses only, Young Trustee
Lady Fulton, and Captain McGowen. Other
celebrated horses have tried to make them.
selves wonderful in this attempt, but want of
blood on the last two OF three miles has deprived
them of the honor. In 1888 greg gelding called
Paul PrY trotted eighteen miles and thirty-six
yards in 68 minutes and seconds without
fatigue. under the saddle Hiram Wood
ruff rode this horse when be Hiram not
the hoTse) was a mere boy. About the same
time horse called Jerry trotted seventeen
miles in 90 minutes, under the saddle; and the
English trotting stallion Belfounder, l75 miles
within the hour; but it was not till l84S that a
horse was found that could do the 20 miles
within go minutes. That horse was oung
Trustee, out of the celebrated trotting mare
Fanny Pullen. Trustee was more than half
breed. He performed the feat on the Union
Coulse, Long Island, on the Goth of October
of that year, never breaking throughout the
whole performance. Berline, then so we'll known
among the followers and admirers of the sports
of the turf, handled the ribbons on that memo.
rable occasion. On the twentieth mile the
horse came in apparently as fresh as ever, doing
1t in 2'5l8-the fastest of the match-and trot-
ing the twenty miles in 80 minutes and 35k
seconds. The time on that occasion was care
fully kept, and everybody concerned felt satisfied
that the horse actually accomplished the feat.
Some months after this black geIding, sport
ing the name of Ajax, a sineNy and closely
built animal, sired by Abdallah, attempted to
hang out on twenty-mile-an-hour gait, but
tailed, overrunning the hour by minutes and
374 seconds.
The same year, in the autumn, horse called
WoOdpecker attempted to share the laurels of
Young Trustee, but after going nineteen miles
in 57'43, his owner was afraid of losing his
horse, and stopped him, having only 2'l7 to ac-
cOmplish the last mile. No further attempts
were made to equal or surpass Young Trustees
marvellous feat until 1885, when Trustee, Senior
was matched against Spangle. In this case the
winning horse overran the hour by five minutes
and htty.nine seconds Flora Temple on the
oath of May, OF the same year, aspired TO divide
the honors with Young Trustee, but she failed
throwing shoe on the eighth mile. On the
twelfth or thirteenth mile she was withdrawn.
About this time 1t was known that Lady Full
ton had desire to test ber power of endurance
and blood over the track at a tWenty-mile-an-
hour gait. Accordingly, ON the 18th of
July the match came off, and to the
agreeable disappoint tment and astonishmert
of her friends, she accomplished the feat,
having, however, only five seconds to spare. She
was mare almost unknown to the track, but
from and after this time her name was in the
mouths of turimen. She was a bio Jd.bay,
weighing only seven hundred pounds. How
she ever managed to astonish the sporting
worldlwas mystery, when it was known at that
time she was only an ordinary horse. 1t was
with great distress that she got to the end of
her journey. She not only sweated profusely,
but lathered wherever the harness touched her,
and broke six or eight times during the race
But we now come to the greatest performance
on record only exceeded by that of to-day, in
which Captain McGowen, on the 3lst day OF
October, 1865, beat the time Of Young Trustee
by one minute and ten and half seconds,
aud the time of Lady Fulton by minute and
a half, the only other horses that were able to
tTot twenty miles within an hour. On that oc-
Casion, it will be remembered, Captain McGoWen
had all the elements against him, and nothing
in his favor. The track, however, was in good
condition, and the Eorse, elastic and plump, was
driven by j. j. Bowen. He broke only once,
and that was on gong out OF the back stretch of
the first half of the seventeenth mile. An hour
after the match, Captain McGowen exhibited no
distress. The veterinary surgeons who examined
him pronounced him good for another similar
match.
For the purpose of reference and comparison,
we append tine following time table of Captain
McGowe trot of October 81, 1866
TIME OF THE FIRST HALF OF EACH MILE, EACH