The St. Louis Republic. [volume] (St. Louis, Mo.) 1888-1919, 1903-08-26
LOU DILLON IS
A RECENT FIND,
Prodigious Speed of Mare Has
Been Developed Entirely in
Last Fifteen Months.
SHE Is FIVE YEARS OLD.
Her Mile in Two Minutes Flat
Done on Her Seventh Exhi-
bition-Trained by Mil
lard Sanders.
SHE IS FIVE YEARS OLD.
REPUBLIC SPECIAL.

REPUBLIC SPECIAL.
New York. Aug. &-The wonderful per
Torrance of Lou Dillon at Readville yes
terday when she trotted the long dreamed-
of mile in two minutes nat. was quite UNI
expected. for, although the mare was
known to possess a wonderful flight Of
speed, no one looked for her to reach the
two-minute mark.
Lou Dillon was foaled in 1898. She was
bred at the Santa Rosa farm by ira Pierce
and his brother, the late Henry Pierce, Of
San Francisco. 1t was the general opin-
ion that the mare was erratic and would
not race, and this was responsible for the
fact that c. K. G. Billings was able to
purchase her for 1880.
Lou Dillon is by Sidney Dillon. a COM
paratively young horse. that came into
prominence two years ago as the sire Of
Dolly Dillon, 2:N. On her dams side Lou
Dillon traces straight to the sire of Nancy
Hanks. 2:04. Her dam was Lou Milton. by
Milton Medium. 2:2511 son Of Happy
Medium, the sire Of Nancy Hanks.
The .prodigious speeo of Lou Dillon has
months by Millard Sanders. the trainer who
drove her to her record Lou Dillon's mile
was her seventh public exhibition. Each
been better than the previous one. with the
possible exception Of her mile at Brighton
Beach.
record, 2oesl. but in the first attempt she
failed. She trotted in 2:04X. and. although
failing to beat the record, reduced her own
July Ii, when Sanders drove her a nile in
2:O3h. new worlds record for trotting
mares. She was then sent after Cresceus'S
record. with With the result that she trotted
mile in 202&. which stood as her best mile
until yesterday, when she smashed all rec
ordS to Smithereens.
Palmer Clark. In the Chicago Inter Ocean.
wrote an interesting article on the possible
ity Of two-minute trotter before the
great feat was accomplished by Lou Dillon.
His comment follows:
Lou Dillon's wonderful half milo in nifty
nine seconds at Brighton Beach the past
week is reviving the old question Of whether
we are to have the dream of harness-horse
enthusiasts-the two-minute trotter. Few
fully realize what it means for a horse to
cover a mile in two minutes. and those who
argue It is q physical imposAbility are not
entitled to the ridicule which some writer's
are employing, even with the much-covsted
mark only two and one-quarter seconds
away. Il
Figures are, as rule, uninteresting
reading. but few are necessary to Illus.
trate this wonderful test Of speed. Should
Lou Dillon clip just one-Quarter second
from Cresceus's mark Of 2.0oN. some idea
Of what she would accomplish is best un-
derstood when 1t is known that a horse go
ing 2:02 clip trots 1873 feet per second,
and. as Cresceus's stride is q feet inches.
he has to make two complete strides to ac-
complish the feat
Another way that the taking OF Of the
two and one-quarter seconds can be well
is that when Cresceus tr0tted In
2O2h the watches registered 200 when he
was 30 feet from the wire, and this Is the
pace that Lou Dillon has to annihilate to
do the trick. an improvement over CresceuS
Of nearly one foot per second per mile.
When Robert McGregor. the sire Of Cres-
ceus. drew his driver in 2:171s he trotted
1874 feet per second. so that his son. Cres-
ceus. had improved over his sire's work to
the extent that, were It possible that both
took their marks IN the same mile. Nc
Gregor would be Just 5S6 feet from the wire
when Cresceus finished the mile.
;. Carving out the same comparison. had
champions to be racing with Cresceus, they
would in round figures be behind him the
distances indicated in the following table:
Name, DHne. feet