8o AMERICAN TROTTERS. 



At the close of 1888, the four-year-old record was held by Manzanita, 

 2:16. The year following (1889) her record was equaled by Edgemark, 

 and on August 23, 1890, it was reduced by Sunol, who trotted at Wash- 

 ington Park, Chicago, in 2:10^, and carried the four-year-old record fo r 

 over two years, until lost to the stallion Moquette. 



Kremlin, the best five-year-old, we have mentioned as second on the 

 stallion list. His record was made to a bicycle sulky, with Either up, 

 on the regulation track at Nashville, Tenn. Prior to this, the five-year- 

 old record had been held by Sunol, at 2:083^, made before an old-style 

 sulky, and driven by Marvin, on the Stockton kite, November 20, 1891. 



The advance in speed since 1888, and especially since 1891, has been 

 phenomenal, and marks the rapid evolution of the forces joined to push 

 the interests of the trotting horse. Track improvement was the first 

 step closely followed by the advent of the modern bicycle sulky, with 

 ball bearings and pneumatic tires. Beyond all queston the bicycle sulky 

 cuts from 2 or 3 to 6 or 8 seconds from a horse's record made with old- 

 style sulky, and this fact must be borne in mind when records are com- 

 pared. With the old-style sulky it was conceded by all horsemen that 

 the kite-shaped track was faster than the regulation track by from i to 3 

 seconds, but since the bicycle sulky has come into general use the rec- 

 ords have apparently suffered more on ovals than on kites. 



What the outcome of the present record reduction may be, we shall 

 not attempt to predict. Many think the mile in two minutes a proba- 

 bility of the coming season, but it must be remembered that the drop of 

 four seconds from the present fastest record, 2:04, to the supposable 2:00 

 flat, means a wonderful increase in the rate at which the horse must travel. 

 Sixty yards in a race is a long distance between first and second horses, 

 yet this is what four seconds, at the rate of speed supposed, would cover. 

 It is certainly possible, but the horse that accomplishes the result must 

 be favored in everything including driver, sulky, track and weather. 



As a fitting recognition of the value of pacing blood in the Ameri- 

 can trotting horse, we give the following list of pacers that have made 

 2:10 or better : 



Mascot, 2:04; Hal Pointer, 2:04^; Direct, 2:05^; Flying Jib, 

 2:0 5 3 /i> Johnston, 2:06^; Jay Eye See, 2:06^; Guy, 2:06^; W. Wood, 

 2:07; Vinette, 2:07^; Roy Wilkes, 2:07^; Silkwood, 2:08^; Blue Sign, 

 2:08 24; Robert J., Manager and Winslow Wilkes, each, 2:09^; Cricket, 

 2:10. 



When it is remembered that only one horse (Johnston, 2:06^) had 

 a record better than 2:10 in 1888, we can understand how great has been 

 the progress in pacing speed development. Mascot' s 2 104 exactly equal- 

 ing the world's trotting record of Nancy Hanks was made to a bicycle 

 sulky, on the regulation track at Terre Haute, Ind. , in the first heat of the 

 fastest and most remarkable pacing race on record, September 29, 1892. 



