Jasper County Democrat, Volume 6, Number 21, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 August 1903 — TWO-MINUTE TROTTER [ARTICLE]

TWO-MINUTE TROTTER

Lon Dillon Breaks the World’s Record at ReadviUe, Mass. This year is destined to remain memorable in the history of the horse. Not only has the running record been broken, bat the pacing record, thanks to the achievement of that nimble and 'willing animal Dan Patch, has been broken. Now comoß the news of a still more extraordinary performance in the announcement that at Readville, Mass., Lou Dillon trotted a mile in two minutes. Lou Dillon, owned by C. K. G. Billings of Chicago, is the new world’s trotting champion, having displaced the great Cresceus in her trial against time at Readville. So easily did the little mare perform her work that it is the universal opinion of harness-home men that Lou Dillon can beat the 2:00 mark and possibly she can come close to the harness record of 1:59 made by the pacer Dan Patch. No one who has paid even cursory attention to the development of the horse needs to be toid what this announcement means to the horse breeders of the world. For nearly a century the speed record for trotting horser. has been slowly lowered, each decade seeing a few seconds lopped off from the three-minute record, which was deemed fast at the beginning of the nineteenth century. Fifty years ago the fact that a speed of a mile in two and a half minutes was obtainable was accepted with surprise and elation. The extraordinary fame won by Maud E. in 1885 was due to the fact that she had reduced the trotting record below 2:10. For many years Maud S.’s record of-a mile in 2:08% represented the limit of speed obtainable by trotters, and from that time to this the possibility of evolving a horse which would cut the record to two minutes has been in the minds of horsemen throughout the world. While The Abbot and, later, Cresceus succeeded in cutting the record still further, it has remained for the fleet-footed Lou Dillon to take the honor of making the first two-minute record. The possibility of trotting a mile in two minutes is oo longer in divpnte. It is an accomplished fact. The only question now is whether some still speedier animal may not lop a few more seconds off the record an,d thus establish a new goal for the ambition of the horse fancier. The steady increase in the speed of trotters to be noted during the century in which the one-mile record was lowered by fiftynine seconds may not seem of much utilitarian importance at first glance, but the truth is that it has been accomplished by a general improvement in horses. The two-minute trotter stands as proof that stronger, sounder, swifter animals are harnessed to all manner of horse-drawn vehicles to-day than those that worked for man in pant generations. Trotting records: Record Year Ft. per Horse — one mile. made, second. Yaukey 2:69 1806 29.49 Boston Horse 2:48% 1810 31.38 Trouble 2:43% 1826 32.26 Balls Miller 2:37 1834 33.03 Edwin Forrest 2:36% 1838 33.74 Confidence 2:36 1838 33.85 Dutchman 2;32 1839 34.73 Lady Suffolk 2:29% 1845 35.32 Pelham 2:28 1849 35.67 Highland Maid 2:27 1853 35.92 Flora Temple 2:19% 1850 37.77 Dexter 2:17% 1867 38.47 Goldsmith Maid 2:14 1874 39.40 Rarus 2:13% 1878 39.62 Bt. Jullcn 2:11% 1880 40.22 Jay Eye See 2:10 1984 40.61 Maud S. 2:08% 1885 41.01 Sunol 2:05% 1891 41.17 Nancy Hanks 2:04 1892 42.58 Alls ...2:93% 1894 42,63 The Abbot 2:03% 1900 42.84 Cresceus 2:02% 1901 43.19 Lou Dillon ...2:00 1903 44.00