The New York herald., 1921-01-02
THREE -YEAR-0LDS
TROTTING IN 1928
First Colt Race Won in 3:04
at Hunting Park Almost a
Century Ago.
ny GURNEY G. CUE.

The cutting down or the record for
three-year- trotters to ;0294 in the
campaign recently ended was reminder
that 1. Will soon be one hundred years
since the first race for colts of this
age was trotted In the United States.
1t took place on October %. 1928. over
the old Hunting Park track IN Phila-
delphia. and besides being the, earliest
colt race on record It was among the
earliest trotting contests for horses of
any age on a race track. Hunting Park
was opened in the spring of 1925 and
At was the second course OF its kind in
the country, antedated only by the
New York Trotting Course. built in
1926, at Centreville, Il. l.
This earliest Of colt races was for a
nurse of $50 and silver cup of the
same value, offered by the Hunting
Park Association; the distance one mile
and repeat; weights, 122 pounds: the
young trotters going under saddle
There were only two starters. John
vanderbilt's bay filly Sally Miller and
another called Lady Washington, that
run, the uncle of Hiram Woodruff and
the crack rider of that day, jockied the
Vanderbilt filly and won in :o9 and
3:O4 after her competitor had taken the
second heat in :06.
Advertisements In the American TOrt
Register and the Spirit of the Times
show that the Hunting Park Association
attempted to establish the race for
three-year-olds as fixed event of the
annual fair meetings, but the published
reports Of these meetings indicate that
n failed for lack of entries. In The Trot-
ting Horse of America Hiram Woodruff
mentions 1t as having been won in 1880
by Gypsy In about 3 :07, but no report
Of later race has been found.
Both Sally Miller and Gypsy devel-
oped into celebrated trotters at mature
age, and became the dams of noted
horses when retired to the stud. In 1892
Sally Miller trotted in 2:37. then the
best time on record, and in 1884 she
forced Edwin Forrest to trot in 2 81 u
and :3S to beat her in a match race at
Centreville. Bred to Andrew Jackson,
2:3S1z, the fastest stallion Of his day. she
produced Long Island Black Hawk, 2 :3S,
the first stallion to beat his sire's rec
ord. Gypsy, when mated with Black
Hawk many years after she broke do wn
the present Mount Morris Park. pro-
duced Jupiter, sire of Lady Emma, the
first three-year-ol to earn a record of
1850.
The very few colt races that took
place before the civil war did little to
popularize the practice of training three
year-olds. With three or four exceptions
they were won in slower time than 3 100.
and until 1860 no trotter of this age had
beaten 1850. Smith Burr's bay filly,
Rose Of Washington, by Burr's Napo.
leon. was the first to beat 8 :o0 which
she did In 1852 in q race at the Union
Course. near Jamaica, l.. L.. defeating
American Eagle In 2 :56 and 2 :54. Six
years later, at Centreville. Mr.. Burr's
son. the late CARL S. Burr, Sr. of Comac
L. l.. drove Lady Emma to record OF
2 80. which stood until the Woodlawn
the trotters In 1860. At the first meeting
there a race for three-year-olds was on
the programme, and 1t developed split
hoat contest In which the brown filly Ell
vira Whitesides won the first heat in
3:89, while the black filly Cora, by
Neaves's Cassius NJ. Clay. Jr, won the
other two, setting the record at 2:37A.
Though II was far and away the best
performance made by three-year-olds up
to that period. this race attracted little
or no attention in the troublous times
Just before the civil war The first really
sensational three-year-old was Black
wood. 1881, whose record was made
against time In 1859 at the autumn fair
In Lexington, KY This son of Alex
ander's Norman and Fanny Thomas. by