1 8 THE TWO-MINUTE TROTTERS 



Ira Pierce, brother of Mr. Henry Pierce, had promised to 

 buy Lou Dillon for me and told me if I wanted her, to buy 

 her at any price. I had made up my mind to go to $25,000 

 but a few minutes before the mare was offered he advised 

 me that he would not furnish the money and there was no 

 time to get it elsewhere. In consequence the mare was sold 

 at a sacrifice to Mr. C. K. G. Billings, for $12,500 and she 

 has had no other owner. When the little mare was led out 

 to be sold you may be sure I was not in much of a talking 

 humor but I did manage to say to the assembled crowd: 

 'Gentlemen, I would rather own, train and drive this mare 

 to the record she will attain than to be President of the 

 United States' and I gave them as my reason that we had had 

 many Presidents but never a trotter to do what she would do. 

 At the time I said it I knew those present thought I was just 

 talking. But I meant it. And, inside of six months from 

 that day Lou Dillon trotted a mile in 1:58^ under very 

 adverse circumstances. 



"At that time I had no previous experience to guide me 

 in my work. There had never been a horse that had trotted 

 faster than 2:0214 '^^^^ the work a man must give a two- 

 minute trotter was absolutely unknown to me or any other 

 trainer. It cost me a great deal of thought and quite a little 

 worry and uneasiness. I did only what I thought was proper 

 but at that time my methods seemed a bit severe or strenuous 

 and attracted considerable criticism from my brother train- 

 ers. They wondered why I worked Lou so fast and still 

 tried to make more speed. Now what I was doing was trying 

 to simply develop something that for years had been con- 

 sidered impossible. I was not satisfied or contented to think 

 she would only trot in 2:02 or possibly 2:01 and thus carry 

 the record for I had predicted two minutes or better for her, 

 and I Ijelieve that no other man in the world thought she 

 would trot as fast as two minutes. As I often remarked, 

 training a trotter and edging him up to a two-minute mile 

 or better especially in 1903 was very much like a man play- 

 ing a violin. He gets it all tuned up, lays it down and picks 

 it up next day to play it yet before he can play he must tune 

 it again. In those days a two-minute trotter was just as deli- 



