184 TRAINING THE TROTTING HORSE. 



Woodruff quotes as quite wonderful the two-year-old 

 performance of Young America in 3:06, the mile of 

 Cora at three years old in 2:37, and of Ethan Allen in 

 2:36 at four years old. The two antl three-year-old 

 records of his day were, as they seem to us now, 

 ridiculously slow, and he was in his grave for seven 

 years before either a three or a four-year-old trotted a 

 mile as fast as 2:30. Between the best three-year-old 

 and four-year-old record and the all aged records of 

 Woodruff's time, there was such a wide gap that he 

 naturally believed that a horse must be nine or ten 

 years old before he was ready for great performances. 

 " His own loved Lady Thorn " was when he died ten 

 years old, but had not reached her best, and Dexter 

 had not then beaten Flora Temple's 2:1 9f, but as he 

 Avas only eight the old-time trainer reasoned that with 

 a little more age he would do it. To come down a 

 little further, fifteen years ago there was a gap of fifteen 

 seconds between the fastest three-year-old record and 

 the fastest all-aged record. Five 3^ears later the gap 

 was reduced to thirteen seconds. In five years more 

 Hinda Rose had closed it up to nine and a quarter 

 seconds, and only six years more have elapsed and we 

 find one three-year-old within two and a quarter 

 seconds of the fastest record for any age, and another 

 within one and three-quarter seconds of the fastest 

 record. The history of the running-breed and the 

 trotting-breed has been identical in this respect. 

 The older the breed grows, and hence the higher 

 its natural capacity in the special purpose for which 

 it is bred, the earlier this capacity manifests itself 

 in a hifjh deo^ree. In our earlier trotters the fast trot 



