Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1896-09-11
THE FUTURE OF THE TROTTER
rIconoclast in Horse Review

and even wonderfully good they have
not yet, with a few exceptions, been
record-breakng affairs, but probably
they have been better than that. They
have shown that persistent good breed
ing is now doing its perfect work. They
prove that the American trotting horse
has passed beyond the experimental
stage into what we have all along been
eagerly desiring. He has become dis
tinct breed, a family, and is now en-
titled to recognition as such. lie is no
longer a chance product. He trOts and
trots fast because he is bred to trot fast.
There is now no chance for retrOgression
into nondescript lines. We have breed
upon which we can rely. | do not de-
sire to be understood as meaning that
the time for Improvement is past. BY
no means. | believe on the contrary
that there is still almost unlimited OPP
portunity for improvement. We had to
get the breed established first and then
to proceed to improve it. 1t is becom-
ing yearly less of a question of guess
work and more Of question OF science.
The lines which produce great perform
ers are all the time becoming better
demonstrated, to use phrase applied
to them many years ago by Hank Com
stock. There is no longer much talk of
straying from good trOtting lines in
order to produce the best troUters. All
that foolishness belongs to the past.
1t belonged to the experimental stage
from which we have now emerged.
We are "loolling forward" now, not
backward. | do not believe we have
as yet reached nearly the ultimate speed
of the trotter, nor do | think that it is
any more philosophical to take this
position now than it was twenty-five
years ago. In this respect | am an
optmist. | believe there has been a
constant improvement during all this
period ana that our horses are faster
now in the average than they ever were
before and that from the faster average
will occasionally spring the greatest
performers. There are colts and tillies
now in our paddocks that will make
greater performers than any we have on
our tracks. Their average speed will be
greater, because they are bred to go
faster and they will be just as well and
as carefully handled. No, we haven't
reached the limit. We don't know that
the limit of running horse speed has
yet been reached with two hundred
years of breeding. 1t was within the
last few years that Salvador ran the
fastest recorded mile. The pesslmist
need not for one moment lay the fatter-
ing JUNCTION to his soul that the trotting
horse has done his best. Why bless the
man! he's just fairly begun. Well
have many greater Maud S., many a
greater Nancy Hanks and many great
er Directum. We are only in the fresh
man class as yet. Wait till we assume
the dignity of seniors. Every now and
then one sees a statement about some
old-tme horse that could set the track
and his own shoes on fire with his mar
velous bursts of speed and would put to
shame every achievement of modern
trottng horses. Sometimes one will
also hear of trial (made in private of
course in the good old days and posi-
bly, timed by an eight-day clock, that
was faster than anything seen on the
track of late years. ! don't believe a
word of such stuff. The records, after
allowances are made for the bike tell
about the correct story. I've heard a
of Of FOL l. -
drivers, but it's the same old thing that
the elders have always been giving the
youngsters since the world began.
Don't you remember how old Nestor.
three or four thousand years ago, talked
to the youngsters of his time about the
amazing proves of the warriors that
fought in the battle of his youth. How
amazingly strong and valiant they were
one of them, according to his story,
could pick up a considerable piece of a
mountain and send it hurtling through
the air with sufficient force to almost
crush an army Hear the old fellow
spout,
Not two strong men the enormous bulk coulu
raise,
such men as live in these degenerate days.
scott makes James Douglas talk in
pretty much The same fashion, and his
speech SET the crowd to moralizing-
OF Scottish strength IN modern day.
Don't you believe that there were as
strong men when old Nestor had gotten
TO be a good deal of back number as