The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1895-07-07
HOW THEY DID TROT,
Dr. johnson Talks Entertainingly of Some
Fast Horses of Yore

a
great lover Of horse flesh, and knows
! probably more about the history Of
morse racing than any other man in
| Wichita. In speaking about racing
| yesterday, he said:
The first hore to trot in public for
money in America, and probably in
! the world, was Boston Blue, who was
| driven IN 1918 TO beat three minutes on
/ a wager Of 81. 900. He won very clever
| ~. thereby covering himself with both
! dust and glory. So famous did the
| horse become by the performance of
this feat that he was soon bought by
! celebrated tragedian. Thomas Cooper,
who drove him several times between
New York and Philadelphia, thereby
enabling himself to perform his engage
ments in either city on alternate
/ nights"
In 1924 the correspondent for a New
York paper says: 81 presume that
| Boston Blue is the rat-tailed. iron-gray
| mentioned in the Cambridge Road
match, elsewhere called the Slate-col-
ored American, who did for Major VIII
! lam Jones the first mile ever recorded
in three minutes"
This is probably the same horse (for
/ he was afterwards taken to England
mentioned in an English wark. An
mails of Sparting: "On Dec. 10, 1923, the
American Roam started 10 do one mile
in three minutes and six seconds upon
the trot, for so sovereigns, and won,
with two seconds TO spare
1t is doubtless the same horse of
which Glasgow paper says he is
/ equal to IL miles an hour is matched
to do eight mile in half an hour on tina
( Cambridge road, on Thursday, and 10
carry eleven stone. 15i pounds. The
horse is an iron-gray, rat-tailed, and
is sixteen hands high. The match was
ION q
and the horse did his first mile in $50:
second in 3:29; third in 3:26: fourth III
1886; fifth in 3:32; sixth in $50. seventh
in $40 and eighth in 3:52. making the
whole eight miles in % minutes and 90
seconds"
In 1924 the "Treadwell mare" trotted
her mile in 2:34. Again in 1924 / quote
from a New York paper: ION Satur-
day last, for bet of $780, horse of
Mr.. Van Buren's was trotted to a
wagon, without collar or traces, six
miles in % minutes. The time allowed
was "a minutes, and the performance
was done from the 18th to the 9th mile
stone. The horse came in without
fatigue, although the whole of the tire
came off one of the wheels" This
horse, you will observer. must have
pulled the wagon by the bit.
But what would drivers and judges
of today say to a rule like this exhibit
ed in an account of an English race in
1926: MIR. Williams horse, which beat
the Slate-colored American'-Boston
Blue no doubt-"was backed to trot
three miles in nine minutes. for 100
guineas. The horse did the first mile
in 2:52, and at the end of the second
had u seconds to spare, but when a
hundred yards from home he broke and
was so hemmed in by the crowd when |
he turned back that he could not clear
n oil nd n iS t1b Nv DC
This system Of turning back, when a
horse breaks, is one of the errors in
English trotting rules which has mtit- /
ated against all progress or improve /
ment 4 horse loses enough by being
pulled down to his work again. as
every driver knows. If he must turn /
back an unsteady horse such asPelham /
would be distanced every time he
started"
But how truly we can admire the 1
performance of Trustee away back in |
1SiS over the Union course, Long /
Island, driven to do twenty miles with /
in the hour in harness. on Oct 20, the 4
course in good order, no sun, wind /
high. He was driven by Cornelius S. /
Berthe. weighing AS pounds, in $50 |
pound ordinary sulky. The odds were ;
100 10 40 on time. The word Cor was /
given so vehemently that the horse
broke, but he caught his step and /
whole performance. In trotting the |
ninth and tenth miles the horse fell off /.
a few seconds and many person thought
that he was firing, but the judges
remarked, az he passed the stand, that /
he was going perfectly at his ease,
with his ears playing. On the fifteenth
mile the odds on time declined a little
on the seventeenth a. horse was gal
ioped by his side 10 encourage him; on
the eighteenth II was even betting: on
the ninteenth mile so to 10 was offered
on the horse. on the commencement
of the twentith mile Berthe let the
horse out, and he came in apparently
as fresh as when he started. doing his
twentith nile the fastest Of the match,
in 2:51ia.
Trustee was q son of imported (thor-
oughbred) Trustee, and the celebrated
trotting mare. Fanny Pullen, breading
not known, but believed TO be OF good
blood.
In 1885 Lady Suffolk. as 5-year-old.
trotted her first race. which she won in
for a purse Of Sill She was con-
stantly on the turf for sixteen years:
and her races were more often two,
three or four miles than one mile.
Think OF IL, Sixteen years of cOntin-
uous racing. One hundred and sixty
one races Of one 10 four miles, and two
TO seven heats,
She won sS5.0lI and travelled over
ten states OF the Union. In a case OF
such extraordinary endurance II must
be blood that tells. Lady Suffolk was
a daughter of Engineer. d through bred
dam was a daughter OF Plato. also
son of Messenger. What could be
finer? This Messenger was an i'm
ported. thoroughbred, with strong
.rotting pToclivities. which he i'm
parted 10 his descendants. He is the
direct ancestor OF Sweet AK. 2.05S..
through the following descendants:
Mambrino PayMaSter.
Msmbrino Chief, WoodfOri Mambrino,
Pancoast, Patronage the sire OF Alix.
,:0S%.
Old Thoroughbred Messenger is also
great the grandsire (by four lines
through his own sons and daugrters)of ;
10 who produced Elec-
-inoeer. Happy Medium 1.-THE sire OF ]
Nancy Hanks and founder OF the Me :
lium family, George Wilkes Uhe
'ounder o. ire Wilkes family. and a i
lost of other great sons and daughters.
We are apt 70 forget how much the ,
'ast horse interests OF today owe 10 ,
his great thoroughbred. Messenger"
Parties are travelling over the south
vest representing themselves as doing
business. as The National PubiishinG J
%. OF ST. Louis. making collection for
he Eagle by working sole kind OF 4
book gift in connection with t. They
ire frauds. No one has any authority 5
o make collections bat cur regular &
rayeling correspondents. p. 3. D!iday | !
md Ed Hornaday, and the post :
masters. .