IV. 



TROTTING RACES. 



SINCE 1824, when trotting may be said to have 

 begun as a sport, the record has been reduced 

 from 2 minutes 40 seconds to 2 minutes 8f seconds. 1 

 "Whence comes this great advance? It is due to 

 improvements in trotting courses, in sulkies, in 

 horseshoes, in boots and toe-weights, in harness (par- 



1 Since this chapter was printed, the record has been reduced by 

 Nancy Hanks to 2.04. On this occasion, however, she drew the 

 newly invented " bicycle " sulky with pneumatic rubber tires, the 

 use of which is thought to make a saving of at least two seconds in 

 a mile. Nancy Hanks is by Happy Medium, son of Rysdyck's 

 Hambletonian : her dam was Nancy Lee, by Dictator, another son 

 of Hambletonian and brother to Dexter. Nancy Lee's dam was by 

 Edwin Forrest, of the half-bred Kentucky Hunter family to which 

 Flora Temple belonged. Edwin Forrest also sired the dam of 

 Mambrino King. 



