The New York herald., 1922-10-01
Rapid Progress Still Marks
Evolution of Light Har-
ness Horse.
WHERE WILL 1T STOP?
Nothing But Superior Natural
Speed Can Now Aid New
Record Breakers.
BY GURNEY C. CUE.

the worlds record in one day, is calcu-
lated TO revive speculation concerning
the ultimate speed of the trotting horse
This was "A fruitful topic of talk among
horsemen for half a century before the
advent of the . 100 trottor. Optimists
and pessimists crossed swords In earnest
when Flora Temple set the record at
2:19M in 1852 very large number
perhaps the ajority--asserting that
her performance at Kalamazoo could
never be beaten. while few horsemen
maintained that some day their chill
dren's children might see "A horse trot
mile in 2:10. Scientific breeding, i'm
proved sulkies, faster tracks better
training methods and the like made their
dream come true in quarter of a
century.
No sooner had Jay-Eye- See accom-
plished this feat in 1884 than the
progressives of trotterdom began TO
dream anew about the possibility OF
mile in 2 100 by some prodigy of the
breed at some far distant day. And To-
In just one year more than another
quarter of a century there came forth
Uhlan. the son of Bingen, and made
good their daring predictions by trotting
mile in :5S% the first in 200 OF
better without the aid of windshield.
This was in 1910. Two years later this
and now after another decade Peter
Manning has carried it down to 81.
Where will this progress end, for
progress and real progress 1t is in the
cases of Uhlan and Peter Manning. or
the champion trotters before Uhlan it
might be said that every material re-
duction in the record was accomplished
by some outside advantage over their
predecessors, such as the pneumatic
sulky. which enabled Nancy Hanks to
lop four seconds and n little more off
the record in 1892. But Uhlan had no
better sulky than Lou Dillon. whose
best legitimate record he beat by three
seconds. nor was there any material
Improvement in tracks. training meth
ods or mechanical appliances in his
day. And all this is true of Peter
Manning as compared with Uhlan. The
present record holder is undeniaby
faster than the black champion of ten
years ago and could almost certainly
beat him forty-five feet. or about four
lengths. in a mile, were Uhlan now fit
and ready to measure strides with him.
When horsemen twenty years ago
were disputing the question as to when
or whether the 900 goal would be
reached by n trotting horse, Christian
Schuarte. a German importer Of Ameri-
can trotters. advanced a novel and
plausible reason for belief that even
time" would be reached about the year
1905. His theory was based on a
diagram or chart he had made TO show
the downward course of the record
from 1906, when Yankey first trotted
in 2:06 at Harlem. to 1901. when
Cresceus set the mark at 2:02H.
The diagonal line of advancing
speed crossed the horizontal line rep
resenting the 2:00 record at its inter-
section with the vertical line repre-
senting the succeeding years at the
one numbered 1905. This proved to be
a little out of the ziszag line of actual
accomplishment but the German
horseman's prediction came true within
five years after he made 1t. Accord
fng to his chart. Peter Manning was
due to set the record at 1857 In 1903
or thereabout He is thus more than
n decade overdue. though he has ar
rived in only a little more than the
scheduled number OF years after the
advent Of the 2 100 trotter.
AS a matter of course, the diagonal
line of advancing speed must ultimately
diverge into the horizontal, when the
limit OF the trotting horse has at last
been reached. Rut the slant of this
diagonal line has now for more than one
hundred years held wonderfully true TO
its course. and the drop of three seconds
in the record within period of twelve
years after the two minute goal was
reached certainly indicates that the har-
ness horse is not yet by any means at
the end of his rope.
As showing the capacity OF Peter Man.
ming. 1t Is Of interest to note that in his
Columbus performance he moved the
first quarter in 0:291a. the second in
In
fourth in 0:29S. The first half mile
was thus covered in 0:5SA. the middle
half in 0:5S--a 1856 clip-and the last
half In O:5sh The rating OF the mile
from start to finish bears witness to the
consummate skill and judgment of the
champions trainer and driver. Thomas
w Murphy.
The following list shows the gradual
reduction Of the trotting record from
3 100 to :57
scrcwdriver. ch. e. CfoaIed 1870, by
American Commander; dam by
Mount Holly ? Centrevtic. l.. J.,
May Is. is26 cwhite Howard ~. '2:ls
Trouble. 0Si-). by Bishops
Hamiltonian centreville. L. L. .o,,,,
Rather, b. &. dsa-js by Bishops
october s,'s99"h }. s2s ecS MATT cbsttoeE * .2t2
screwdrlver. Hunting Park Philadcl-
phia. Pa. May u. 1898 (Joel Conl-
lin ...................... '2;4O9i
Topgallant. b. z. Gsio), by Corian-
der. dam by Bishops Hamilton
ian Hunting Park. Philadelphia,
woodr1ffJ .'.....'...,...........t. $50
Sally Miller. b. IN. Gs25l. by Tippoo
sahib. Hunting Park. Philadelphia,
Pa, November q. 1882 tJohn Van
Eswin Forrest. blk. &. Os2D. by
Tuscarora Eagle Course, Trenton,
n J. November ~. ts33........... '2:3I
Sally Miller. Hunting Park. Philadel-
phia. Pa. November 81. 1888 John
Nav Nav .. f.. issf .................' .2;sih
Columbus b. Z. Cis2sl. by Superior;
ianj'..''.......',....... ''V''V - 80 .oYg 'e:2s
is's Engineer: dam Jenny by Don
Oulxote ? Beacon Course, July g.
1S43 (Aibert Conklin) .............. - -
Beppo. ch. 2. Os3OD, by Clifford Nor
gan: Beacon Course, July 4. isf3
(John spicer) ).................... '2;2S
q ~. is,5 tAibert conRin) .......,., .c:2oM
Ts4e Cpavid S Bryan1 '.'....,e....'.. .e:2e
Tacony. ro. 3. Gs4i. hv Sportsman.
i,"Sv'Rins issa William woodraf Y''.0e' ... % 20
----- Hunting Park. Philadelphia.
rufo . ............'.......... 800 .2.a5H
Flora Temple. b. n. ns45l: by Bogus
Spotted Arabian Union Course. T..
rufJ .............. .....s............ ~ .2fn
is5( res 3 McMsnnl -. " asx
--- atreviiie. August Q. 1859