Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1904-02-19
HORSE NOTES..
News of General and Local Interest to
Horsemen.

Our readers are requested to send to "Grif-
hn," p o. Box G3l, Middlebury, any news OF
deaths, sales, foaling, perform lnces, etc, of
horses that are OF enough consequence to be
noted in this department, which viii be main
tanned with view to making it of interest
both local and widespread.
Brother Toman, in the last issue of
The Trotter and PAGER, denotes his lead
ing editorial to a renewed discussion of
the record question, as exemplified in
the decision of the trio of presidents of
the three great associations devoted to
trotting interests that Lou Dillon did not
get record of 2.05 to high-wheel sulky
at Cleveland last year, because she
previously had faster record than o.
The article begins in this, presumably,
flatterng manner: "Our ordinarily
perspicacious and always respected
friend Griffin has joined the equally
sapient editor of the Horse Review in a
concordant effort to prove that The
Trotter and PAGER is wrong in the as
sumption that a winning performance
does not necessarily involve a record.
There appeared simultaneously last
week in the Middlebury Register-in
whose columns the always entertaining
comments of Griffin now appear-and
the Review, editorials of almost identi-
cal character, whose purport is to make
it appear that a trotter may have almost
any number of records to the same kind
of hitch, and that it is ridiculous to
insist that only the fastest performance
constitutes the record.
said presumably flatterng," because
the writer clearly intends to be compi-
menlary, but whether his expression
"ordinarily perspicacious' means that
my perspicacity is of an ordinary, or
'ornery, character, or that it represents
my usual mental faculties in operation,
is not quite clear to me. But l accept
the latter Interpretation. The editor
goes on, at considerable length to
discuss the question, but fires his volleys
at the Horse Review rather than myself
and the Mddebury Register, and utterly
fails to notice what seems to me to he
]
the matter especially that when an
animal wins a heat he makes a record
for himself on the day and track be-
cause the time is recorded on the book
kept at the track The language of the
only rule bearing directly ON the subject
is this, Rule 43, Sec. L "A record can be
made only in public race, or in per-
Torrance against time, the horse to trot
or pace full mile according to rule; and
the time must be taken by three Timers,
and the record of the race must be kept
and signed by the Judges and Timers"
The record of the race" to nv mind, of
necessity, includes every winning per
former in the race. and gives each such
horse record for that particular
occasion, whether slower or faster than
his previous mark. 1t is true enough
that in ordinary conversation hOrsemen
asking of horse "What is his record:"
do mean his fastest record, and it is right
here that it seems to me that the trio of
presidents, and the editor of The Trotter
and PAGER, got tangled Common
parlance does not constitute legislation.
Ask the owner of the animal what he
did previous to his supreme effort, and
you will be told that he took many
former records at different tracks, in all
probability. His faster mark has wiped
out these slower ones in the eyes of the
public but it has not erased them from
the books of the track where they were
made and recorded, and can never erase
them. Lou Dillon's record of . 90 at Read
vile Is Just as. true a record as her .5S5
at Memphis, and will ever stand to the
credit of the Massachusetts track as
being the first two minute performance
for trotter. 1t is something that it is
impossible to wipe out, because it is "A
fact recorded there ON the books of the
Association; and yet we are asked to
admit that while 200, by Lou Dillon, is
the best record for Readville track, it is
not a record for Lou Dillon herself,
because she went faster later. | decline
to say anything about "absurdity" and
Illuminating density of mental per-
ceptions,' etc. Regarding the disserta-
ton upon what the customs of the Year
Book are, or will be, in such cases as
that of Lou DIllon's performance to high
Wheels | can only say that the proper
way, which l suppose will be followed,
would be, under the head of the races at
Cleveland. and in proper chronological
order, to record the feat about as fol-
lows:
To beat 2.Os4, to high-wheel sulky.
G. X. G. Billings CHI m, Lou Dillon, by
Sidney (Saunders) /
Time, 2
Time, 2.05.
Not remembering the exact date of
the performance, or the consideration, |