Rensselaer Journal, Volume 11, Number 13, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 September 1901 — Three to Two Minute Trotters. [ARTICLE]

Three to Two Minute Trotters.

Within the memory of living man a three-minute trotter was pretty sure to throw his dust in the face of anything on the road. Then came the period when “2:40 tail over the dashboard” was expressive of the limit of the trotter’s speed. Oliver Wendell Holmes, in his poem on “Contentment,” remarked that he would be satisfied with a nag that could do 2:40, though a few seconds less would have given him the pole against all rivals. But the real attack of the trotter on time began with Flora Temple’s stepping out of the 2:30 class and establishing a record from which the descent has been almost by single seconds or fractions of seconds down to that ol Cresceus this year. How the seconds have been clipped off is shown in the following table: 1856—Flora Temple 2 24% 1859 —Flora Temple 2:19% 1865 Dexter ..2:18% 1866 — Dexter 2:18 1867 Dexter 2:17% 1871— Goldsmith Maid 2:17 1872 Goldsmith Maid 2:16 1874 —Goldsmith Maid 2:14 1878 — Rarus 2:13% 1879 — St. Julian 2:11% 1880 — Maud S .*2:10% 1881 — Maud S.. 2:10% 1884 —Jay-Eye-See 2:10 1884 — Maud S 2:09% 1885— Maud S 2:08% 1891— Sunol 2:08% 1892 — Nancy Hanks 2:07% 1892—Nancy Hanks 2:05% 1892—Nancy Hanks 2:04 1894 —Alix 2:04 1894—Alix 2:03% 1900— The Abbot ..2:03% 1901 — Cresceus 2:02% 1901 —Cresceus f. 2:02% The most remarkable showing of this table is that which gave to Maud S. her title of “Queen of the Turf,” which she held for no less than ten years, the record of Jay-Eye-See not standing long enough to constitute a flaw in it. The present champion of the turf holds not only the record for the fastest time ever made by a trotter, but the fastest heat in a race, the fastest second heat, the fastest two-heat race and the fastest three-heat race. His endurance is as remarkable as his speed.