88 ROAD, TRACK, AND STABLE. 



ticularly in the device of the overdraw check), in 

 training and driving, and finally in the speed and 

 endurance of the trotters themselves. The gain in 

 actual speed for a short distance has been much 

 slighter than is commonly supposed. So long ago as 

 1866, Hiram Woodruff drove Mr. Bonner's gray 

 mare Peerless (who was bred like Dexter, being in 

 part Messenger and in part Star) a quarter of a mile 

 at the rate of a mile in two minutes, — and this not 

 to a sulky, but to a skeleton wagon, a four-wheeled 

 vehicle, which is much heavier. It is doubtful if 

 this rate of going will ever greatly be surpassed, 

 though it is, I think, commonly believed by horse- 

 men that some time or other a mile will be trotted 

 in two minutes. The gain will probably be not so 

 much in speed for a short distance as in the ability 

 to maintain speed for a full circuit of the track. 

 Even Maud S. flagged a little on the last quarter of 

 her fastest mile. 



For the past fifty years, and especially for the 

 latter half of that time, much ingenuity and in- 

 ventive skill have been employed to afford the trot- 

 ter all the mechanical assistance that is possible. 

 Tracks are made of an elliptical instead of a round 

 shape, because the two comparatively long stretches 

 or straight pieces th%s obtained give the horse, 

 particularly a big-striding one, the opportunity that 

 he requires to get up his speed. Courses laid out in 

 this way are found to be much faster than the old 

 tracks, which were more nearly round. During the 

 past two years many tracks have been constructed 

 in what is called the kite shape, which resembles 

 a long loop, or an oval, the sides of which have 



