34 The Trotting and the Pacing Horse 



of the stallion in the new Year Book will be as it 

 was last time, 2.02^." 



Controversy over the coming of the two-minute 

 trotter, which raged for some years, has not been 

 satisfactorily settled. Those who maintain that a 

 mile in two minutes at a trot is an impossible 

 performance will not surrender their views until 

 the fact is established without the aid of pace- 

 maker and dirt-shield. 



Dan Patch 



The only pacer officially recognized as across 

 the two-minute line in 1903 was Dan Patch. 

 He is a brown horse, foaled in 1896, and got by 

 the great pacer, Joe Patchen, 2.01 \, out of Zelica 

 by Wilkesberry by Young Jim by George Wilkes ; 

 second dam Abdallah Belle by Pacing Abdallah. 

 As Joe Patchen is by Patchen Wilkes, son of 

 George Wilkes, Dan Patch carries a double 

 infusion of the famous Wilkes blood. Dan Patch 

 is a handsome, substantially built, dark bay horse, 

 and August 29, 1902, he paced at Providence to 

 a record of 1.59^. He was busy against the 

 watch in 1903, and I was one of the judges at 

 Lexington, October 16, when he paced to a wagon 

 record of 1.59^. The pace-maker with dirt-shield 



