New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1883-11-18
THE ULTIMATE TROTTER.

When MaCaulay's New-Zealander shall, in the
midst of vast solitude, take his stand on ruined
tower of Brooklyn Bridge to sketch the ruins of the
New-YOrk Post Office building-when that rather
distant day dawns what will be the time of the
latest trOting horse that has beaten the record
1t is an interesting question. 1t battles the wisdom
even of those who have made the trotter life
long study and perfectly familiar with his
achievements. They know what he has done, but
they do not know and can only timidly guess what
he can do.
The fact that the ambitious bay geldmg Frank
has just troted mile in 2:0sla adds good deal Of
fuel to the flame of this interesting speculation.
True, these figures are not so wonderful as those
that opened the gates of dcathIcss fame to Maud g.
since Frank was sustained and soothed" by run
ming mate while Maud made her 2:1Ol4 unaided and
alone doing her own pulling as well as her own
trotting All the same 2:0Sl2 goes upon the record
Extraordinarily low figures they are, relatively
and absolutely They show to best advantage
when compared with those which represented the
crack trOttng Of a quarter of a century ago. Be
fore the war "2:i0 on the plank road was a ia
milan bit of slang and went to indicate that trOtCr
of that easy going era was considered good one II
he was equal to $40. Nowadays horses that can
trot in 2:2J are not uncommon, while scores Of
horses beat 900, not to speak of such shining
opponents of rapid transit Maud $, Frank, JAY
Eyc-Scc Trnket and st. Julien If the future is to
repeat the past how many more seconds will be
taken out of the trOttng record by the end of this
century. or say of The next Mr.. Robert Bonner
lately Informed a TRIBUNE reporter that he be-
heved the day was coming when two-minute
record would be common thing. And by way of
commencing his belief to whom it might concern
Mr. Bonner stated that his own stables contained a
bnr tbpt had trnttpl pf a mile i'm Roll
seconds Assuming that Mr.. Bonner is correct. it is
to be remarked that when a mile in two minutes is
common thing the uncommon trottcr will of
course find no difficulty in striking yet more
nimbc gait. How many seconds more ninbef
We have said that there is no solving this problem.
Nevertheless. by way of approXimating to a result,
il is not unfair to take il for granted that the uncom
mon trotter of the golden age when a mile in two
minutes in to be common, will he as much faster
than his common contemporary the uncommon
trotter of to-day is faster than the common trottcr
OF to-day. In other words, the coming uncommon
trotter will lead the coming common trotter by
from ten to fifteen seconds, making his mile in
lao or 800.
Now it will be generally admitted that horse
that can trot mile in 145 is in small danger of
getting left Still is possible that the record will
descend to a still lower figure scientist has
arisen who argues in apparent good faith that in the
good trotting time coming the trottcr will equal
the running horse in speed Mr. Bonner is of the
opinion that this scientist talks nonsense. Prob
ably he does. But IT is just possible he does not.
1t has lately been shown by Professor Bell before
the National Academy of Sciences that the marriage
of deaf-muteS with dcafmutcS tends to the tOrma-
ton of Il brand-ncw variety of the human race
a deaf variety. Who shall say. then, that III the
course of time and as a result of an intelligent
scheme of breeding, new variety of the equine
race may not bo produccd-a race to which trotting
shall DE the normal gait and which shall be prac
ticaly incapable of runnngH Let such n race of
horses appear and be fully developed and it may
come to pass that some Bonner of the future, alert
in the grand stand with stop-watch in hand shall
see a trottcr make his mile in 1:35-or thercabouts
Evidently the trotting horse has a great future
hpfnrr him