The Portland daily press., 1896-01-11
CAN'T DO 1T.
The Trotter Will Never Reach Two
Minutes.
so ARGUES DIR. GEORGE III. BAILEY
OF DEERING,

In an Able Article in The Turf. Farm an d
demonstrating Extracts Therefrom-
| Can't Maintain the Pace Long Enough.
| In the Christmas number of the Turf,
Farm and Home, DR.. George H. Bailey,
of Deering, Stats veterinary surgeon, has
long and very interesting arttule on
titled, HThe Two Minute Trotter, =
wherein he argues that two minutes is
not going to be attained by the trotting
horse. The article is illustrated by por-
trait of the author. After urging at some
length that it is the Improvement in
sulkies, rather than horse flesh that has
caused the rapid lowering of time in re-
cent years he takes into consideration just
what extreme speed actually is.
| Following are some quotations.
"Let us see how much actual speed we
have ever had, or do now possess.
I Up to the close.of 1891 no high wheel
performer had ever taken the word in
public and trotted any quarter OF a mile
better than 30A seconds, and but two Of
them have ever accomplished that but
once in their lives; and at the close of
| 1896 no trotter to the bike has yet -been
able to encompass the distance in less
| than 29A seconds, and there are but
three of these. Nancy Hanks, Alix and
Azote, who trotted his first quarter in
that time at Galesburg, his half being
L01I and his mile 2. 04s4, and neither of
this trio of s"Cracker-J Jacks" have ever
been able to make but one such supreme
effort in their whole public career; and
singularly enough, these are the only
three that have ever beaten 2.05 in har-
ness.
Accepting then, these isolated quarters
as representing the extreme speed OF the
trotter for a sprinting distance, what
probability is there of any trotter now
In sight or "out Of sight" ever going four
| thirty seconds under existing conditions?
Arbitrary and unoontroyertible statistios
| up to the present time, also demonstrate
that no trotter was ever yet able to go
| four quarters in succession in SO seconds
| to the high wheel, although Maud s.,
Palo Alto and Sunol have all demonstrat-
ed its possibility by trotting within a
| fraction Of that limit; and that but two,
Alix and "Our Nancy have ever been
able to 60 four quarters in succession in
| 81 seconds to the bike sulky, both of
these against the watch, and not race
records, but when we come to deduct a
| full second from each of such quarters,
hQt lint
dreamers and surface Ieasoners care to in
duIge in, and they will all find: 1t is
far cry to Loeb Alive
"No trotter ever went half mile in
one minute yet, and if any one ever does
they will be all summer going the other
half.ss In 1899 Nancy Hanks and Martha
Wilkes both trotted q half mile In 1.M,
the former finishing the mile at the rate
Of aQS 1.2 and the latter finishing the
mile3at the rate of Ala. Directum went
to the half mile pole, over that tobOggan
slide, shute at Fleetwood. in leo IA and
the black wonder could only finish up the
mile at tho rate of 2. 10 1-2, and no baby
trotter or mature horse ever yet
went an exceptionally fast quarter or
half mile anywhere near his limit of
speed, that did nos have to go slow one
in that same mile as a penalty, proving
over and over again that 1t is the pace
that kills, and this same unalterable law
will confront the breeder of half GEN.
tury hence, as it did those of fifty years
ago, oonclusively proving that half
mile, even in 101, will prove an insur
| mountable barrier to any horse that at
| tempts to finish the mile at the required
rate of speed. Did my readers ever stop
| to consider what has become of all the
would he two-minute performers, who
have aspired to the championship, not
| mentioning the lesser lights that have
gone to join that quartette of mangifi
cent cripples, represented by Direetum,
NanoyE Hanks, Alix and .Azote? We're
they not all rendered shors du combat"
in training and trying to accomplish I'M
possibilities?
"From the kindergarten of Palo Alto
to the snowdrifts OF Maine, almost every
breeding paddock from the "rising to the
| setting sum- is strewn with the wrecks
of embryo and undeveloped trotters that
have been sacrificed to the ambition or
ayarice of some owner or trainer. drawn
and quartered' in heart breaking trials,
and the repetition of supreme efforts to
attain extreme speed "until the silver
cord is loosensd, or the golden bowl be
broken at the fountain, or the wheel be
broken at the we'll" The fact is, the
pace kills now more than it ever did, and
the craze for extreme speed has much to
do with these results mile in 2.o4
today excites no more enthusiasm than
2. 20 did in the days of Flora Temple, and
more horses go lame nowadays than form
erly because so much fast work is re-
qured of them to develop the amount Of
speed and endurance required Ito win,
that they break down, and Fl have seen
several hotly contested split heat races
this season where almost every one of
the starters was dead lame at the finish.
Horses are not machines that can be
driven to their limit, like steam ships
and nogul engines, and any further