The Washington herald., 1911-07-23
.TROTTER AND PAGER
Eyes of Local Horsemen on Grand Circuit Epents
Over Kalamazoo Track-News and Gossip.
By L. ID. SALE.

BY L. ID. SALE.
The eyes of light-harness horsemen In
every part of the United States have
been directed the past week toward the
city Of Kalamazoo. where the trotters
and PAGERS have been rapidly writing turf
history.
The beautiful prairie town has been in
the light-harness lmelight for over
half a century-in fact, ever since Flora
Temple beat Honest Anse and the dam
of Happy Medium in straight heats over
the old track on the banks Of Grand
River and trotted to a worlds record Of
2:193s to high-wheel. straight-axle sulky.
It is not so far a cry, after all, from the
2:19s Of Flora Temple, made in 1858, to
the 2:0s made on Wednesday last by
Thomas Murphy's initiated delivery horse
trotter. r. T. c., in the $4,000 Paper Mill
stake as appears on the surface.
Because when one takes into considera-
ton the crude methods of training and
shoeing of those days. the fact that the
trotting breed was not yet established,
that the sulky drawn by the game, bob
tailed little bay mare was as crude in
conception as the primitive OK cart OF
our forbears. when compared with the
elegant and graceful vehicle drawn by
r. T c., the performance Of the daughter
Of Madame Temple was nothing short Of
the marvellous.
Tba -uor,iputa trotter is NOT onIy here
but he has been with us now some little
time Intelligent horsemen are now
breeding for the 1:55 trotter, and he, too.
will arrive in due time. and when the
breed at the flying trot shall have be-
come more firmly established, when the
running gait of the flying-trotter ances-
tors shall have been entirely eliminated,
as II will be as we progress in scientific
breeding. the light-harness horse may be
expected to take a shy some day at the
records of the thoroughbred. 1t will be
fifty-three years in october since Flora
Temple accomplished her great feat at
Kalamazoo. Beyond the turbid waters
of the Missouri was a trackless wilder
ness, except where the buffalo, the gold
seekers, and the Mormons had blazed the
trail. Kansas was in the throes of a
bloody agitation in regard to the question
as to whether she should come into the
Union a free or a slave State.
John Brown and his band Of fanatics
had not yet made their raid on Harpers
Ferry for the purpose Of creating an in
surrection among the slaves of Virginia.
The sta-wart pine Of the Sangamon,
Abraham Lincoln, was still industrtously
riding the Illinois circuit, little thinking
of the part he was to play in the tragedy
of war between the States three years
later In all of the States and Terri
tories there were no more than Sc, 1900
souls. E-
Leland Stanford, later the master of
historic Palo Alto, was laying, at the
period of which we speak, the founda-
ton of his great fortune. The Alexan-
der brothers, Kentucky, were best
known as breeders of blooded cattle
sheep, and thoroughbred horses. The
breeding of trotters at woodburn Farm
was then in its experimental stage
Charles Bachman, at Stony Ford, Orang,
County, n. ". had not yet made money
| enough lin the stock market to warrant
him to embark into the breeding bust
ness on the large scale that afterwart
characterized his efforts.
Henry n. Smith, of Fashion Farm. New
Jersey, had never been heard of outside
of Wall street, and his partner in aftel
years, Jay Gould. had just emerged from
earning a modest living in peddling map:
| and surveying land. Cicero J. Hamlir
was a callow young man Of thrifty hab-
It's, but It is doubtful as to whether he
ever dreamed of becoming one Of the
most eminent breeders of trotting horses
in the United States or that he would
die a multimillionaire William Rys-
dyck. afterward eminent as the owner OF
Hambletonian 10, the father Of trot-
ters," was a day laborer and little
thought then that he would die one OF
the richest men In Orange County. Ham,
bletonian was in his colthood, and Dex-
ter, his son, the first horse to lower
Flora's time, had not yet been conceived
It has taken upward of fifty years tc
lower Flora's 2:19& to 1:5s15 at the trot.
but every year, from 1s5S to 1911, has
been a milestone Of progress.
The dominant feature Of Grand Circuit
racing up to the date Of this writing Is
not the fast time made. but In the fact
that the number of horses in the 2:1o list
Is rapidly multiplying. Six new 2:1o trot-
tiers were added to that list in the three
days meet at Indianapolis. The number
will most likely be doubled at the end OF
the Detroit meet.
There is every evidence that the 2:3t
standard must go. and soon, and that the
standard to take its place will be one OF
2:15. A 2:15 standard would be along the
line of progress. The old one has been
obsolete for the past three years. With
in the next ten years there will be a
clamor on the part of progressive horse
men for a still more radical change, and
the standard will be placed at 2:1o. As
matters stand, even now horse that
cannot beat 2:1o way of has no business
on the Grand Circuit.
The feature Of the racing at the Zoo