The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1902-08-03
RACE TRACK FIGURES
WHAT ROBERT BONNER SAID
ABOUT MINUTE HORSE
To Make Mile in This Time a Horse
Must Beat the Record Made by
Maud by Three Hundred and Fifty
Feet.

When Robert Bonner was asked, in
1891, why he believed no horse could
ever trot a mile in 200, he replied:
Just see what they have got to dol
10 make mile in 200 the horse must
peat Maud S more than $50 feet They
peat her just one foot, without doing il
let alone beating her $50 feet
Mr.. Bonners graphic style of stating
the case brings out forcibly the. actual
meaning OF every advance in the trotting
record, and the vast difference between
a. mile In 2:OSA and mile in 200. To
the average horseman it is much easier
TO think of mere chipping away of
quarter seconds and seconds until the
200 mark is reached than to conceive Of
a trotter great enough to leave the peer
less Maud ) away up the home stretch
twenty yards back Of the distance flag
as ne dashes under the wire.
rms picture seemed SO preposterous to
horsemen of ten year sage that when Mr.
Bonner presented it in friendly contro-
yersy with Gen. B. F. Tracy concerning
the ultimate speed Of the trotting horse,
ment the then secretary of the navy
could advance, and the owner of Maud
5 accordingly had the majority of horse
men on his side.
Yet within one year from this time
the trotting record had dropped from
2:OSA TO 2:04, and Maud was left near
~ , zoU Zee ~, behind the new champion
of the record holders. A radical i'm
provement in sullzy building doubtless
contributed much, If not all, to this mark
cd reduction OF the record, but improve
ments In sulkies, tracks, training meth
DDS, etc, have aided nearly every other
champion to advance the limit of trot-
Sidered
A computation of the relative speed of
the record breakers shows that Cresceus
Maud 2e7 feet in trotting a mile mile. p ast
Stunning that both travelled the dis
tarce at their best recorded rate of speed.
N l.! a match race. where the distance flag
is e1ghty yards from the wire, this would
mean That the great daughter of Harold
whose record Mr.. Bonner believed could
not be beaten, would be ingloriously shut
!, And if all the champions, from Yankey.
the first horse that is known to have
neaten 300, to Cresceus, were to start
orded rate of speed the lion-hearted son
Of Robert McGregor would win by fortV-
big 1o feet or about four lengths, from
and would distance Jay-Eye- See 1S:f06l
and az: all champions that preceded the game
little LIB black geldingo by Dictator.
Flora Temple (2:19A), whose record,
when no made, seemed more wonderful than
the record OF Creceus seems today, would
pc more than furlong behind the win
Horse Her an 354 TEoue aed (X24s9 the Boston
be struggling along back of the three
quarter pole as Cresceus finished his mile.
ne pfesenJ KING OF trotterS travels at
the rate of 1919 feet a second in cover
ing a mile, in 2:02A. In a theoretical
race with the other champions he would
gain more than two feet every second on
the famous SunoI (2:OS14); on St. Julien
1z:1lA), about three feet a second; on
Dexter lGe;1t (2:d7A), nearly five feet; on Sally
Miller (2:3O, nearly ten feet, and on
Yankey nearly fourteen feet
When the horse comes along that can
gain not quite ten inches on Cresceus!
GOV covering forty-four feet a second, we
shall see the record set at "even time. -
Many horses now living can do it for
5hirty seconds Crescues himself has
the rate of forty-four feet a second for
about a minte and a half, carrying a
tWo-minute clip practically as far as
the three quarter pole.
In race with a two-minute trotter
Cresceus would be beaten about ninety
seven feet In other words he is within
that distance of the coveted goal A
little quickening of his stroke or a little
increase in his reach and the trick would
be done; But to bred the trotter that
can do it may take many, many years.