The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1892-12-22
The RECORD FOR The YEAR
The Phenomenal Performance Of the
Trotters That win Stand
for Years.
--
Concise speed History From Flora
Temple to the Peerless
Nancy Hanks.
Records o. the stations and tho stare In
the Four. Three and Two-Year-
Old Glasses.

A writer In q recent number of the
Breeder and Sportsman summarizes the
marvellous work lone by the ~trotters OF the
United States during the season OF 1892
The article ID a timely one, and contains a
great deal OF valuable information for
horseman as we'll as for the general reader.
II is easy to say, says the the article in
question, that Nancy Hanks has reduced
the worlds ~trotting record from 2:0SA to
2:04. but to realize its full Significance the
reader must not only take into account her
magificent series of miles from 200 to 2:O4,
but must also in his minds eye see at the
game time the preceding champions, the
records which they made. and the time
which elapsed between each successive
march into the domains of time. Such a
picture presents to tho view the progress OF
the breed toward its ultimate goal, and
shows on the map Of time the exact distance
covered.
Thirty-three years ago. en- Oct. L.. 1853,
Flora Temple astonished the world by
passing the 2:2O mark and trotting in 2;19A.
Many conservative thinkers believed at
that time the speed limit had been reached.
but the breeders Of the future, the men
who even then had learned to apply cause
and effect to the breeding of the trotter and
had begun the experimental stage OF pro-
g~ressiye breeding, saw in the dim distance
the 2:1O trotter. But eight years elapsed
before the record of Flora Temple was
passed by Dexter. 2:174. who may truly be
said to have inaugurated the Hamble-
tonian era. for. with the exception of Ocoi-
dent. 2:161. and Rarus. 2:13M, all the
succeeding worlds champions have been
of Hambletonian stock. 1t took four
years to knock the record a quarter of a
second. which was accomplished by Gold
smith Maid, Sept. 6. 1871. This record she
reduced to 2:l6s4 in 1872. and in 1873
Occidsrt trotted in the same time, and
Jointly with her held the trotting
throne till July 16, 1874, when the mighty
Maid trotted in 2:16, becoming again the
sole monarch of the ~trotting turf. Septem-
ber II. 1874, Goldsmith Maid trotted In
2:14. making a great step in speed progress
AT this point the party of rest and content
ment declared that the limit had certainly
been reached. and for three years their
faith was justified. But in 1878 Rarus put
the record down to 2:134, and a year later
st. Julien carried it to 2:12sz. Maud s.
made her 2:10M in 1880, and her 2:0SA in
1885. This record remained undisturbed
until Sunol, in 1891, cut it down to 2:OS4.
while in 1892 Nancy Hanks, in one brief
season of three months. has reduced ID to
2:04.
Il will be we'll to briefly recapituiate these
record arches in this bridge of time in or
der to show to advantage this last magni6-
sent span. Between Flora Temples time
of 2:19A and Dexter's 2:17A. there were
eight years. From Dexter to Goldsmith
Maids PA, there was a Period OF seven
years. Four years passed before Ra us got
to2:13M, and two wears more were required to
get to Maud SIS 2:10M. Maud S. took Ave
years to get from 2:10I to 2:OSs4, and six
years rolled around before Sunoi Clipped
off a half second. 1t took thirty-two years
to reduce the record from 2:19M to 2:ooA. a
net fall of III seconds, or less than four
seconds every ten years. Yet Nancy Hanks
has equaled an average ten years reduction
In one short season.
Maud s. was six years old when she trot-
ted in 2:10s4. In 1881 she reduced this to
2:10I. In 1884 she trotted in 2:o94. and on
July 80, 1885, at Cleveland, Ohio. she made
her great record Of 2:0SA. Nancy Hanks
trotted TO a record of 2:09, as a tlve-year-
old, at Richmond, Ind, Sept. 30. 1891. At
Grand Rapids, Mich. Aug. IL Of this year
she IN a regulation track and trotting as a
rule in the middle of the track, tied her
Aug. Is, at Washington Park, Chicago, she
beat the worlds record by trotting in
2:07I, a full cut of one second. Grand as
this performance was the echoes of the
ringing cheers which greeted the marvellous
mare had hardly died upon the memory
when the wires flashed over the continent
that at Independence. Iowa. over the
famous kite track Nancy Hanks had
again reduced the record, and this
time BY q straight cut OF two Sec
onds. The probable climax of her great
career came at Terre Haute, Ind, Sept. %.
when she reduced her record to 2:0f. In
addition to these three memorable record
wreaking miles, she trotted at st. Paul,
Minu., in 2:07. at st. Joseph, Mo-, 2:0715, at
New Albany. Ind, in 2:06. and at Nashville
in 2:05. Here afe eight miles, only one of
which was on a kite track. between 2:O4 and
2:09, with an average OF 2:06$6, by a mare
six years ole. This comparison is not ill.,
stituted to disparage the great ex-queen
Maud s., who will always remain a dowager
queen of the highest renown. 1t ia made to
emphasize and impress the fact that this is
the greatest season of trotting in the his
tory of the national sport. of which Nancy
Hanks career is one of the principal incl
dents.
II will doubtless be said by those who
still belive in the fact, that Nancy Hanks
like the proverbial swallow, does not make
a summer and hat her phenomenal speed is
exceptional and does not prove in itself the
speed progress of the breed. Had the bal
ance Of the season been uneventful such a
statement would have been entitled to
weight, but Nancy Hanks speed revelation
Is but one of the crownlng and radiant gem
TO a tower which is studded will fast per
formances, of which the 2:l5 list affords q
most striking illustration.
Up to the close of the season of 1891 there
were, according to the Year Book, exactly
fifty performers in the 2:15 trolting list,
August IL, 1874, Goldsmith Maid made g
record of 2:l434 and was the first trotter to
frot in 2:I5 or better. 1t therefore tool
eighteen years, or to the close of the season
of 1891, to produce these fifty. Ten year,
after Goldsmith Maid accomplished hel
great task of n mile IN 2:i4 the Q were only
nine in the 2:15 list including herself. The
list la worth reproduction. They were
Maud S, 2:104; Jay-Eye-See. 2:10M; St
Julien, 2:1l4; Rafus, 2:l34; Goldsmith
Maid, 2:14; lrinket. 2:14; Cllngstone, 2:14
Hopeful. 2:144, and Lula, 2:15.
In 1883, six years later. the total in the
2:15 list was twenty-seyen. and the extreme
speed figure WAS 2:08s4. In 1890 there wer,
only six additions to this list, and 169.
only added seventeen, making the aggrs
gate fifty. This season has already added
sixty to the 2:15 list. The trotting turf hal
therefore produced in the present season
more 2:l5 performers than in all its preyi.
GUS history, and more than in the eighteen
years covered by the time from Goldsmith
Maids 2:14 to the close of the season O
1891.
But the lesson of the 2:15 list become
more instructive the closer it is studied
and the brilliancy of the season stands on
In still stronger Keller. Next to the empires
Nancy Hanks come Stamboul. 2:07K an
Kremlin, 2:07%. the stallion king, the,
being followed by the racing queen Marth