14 THE TWO-MINUTE TROTTERS 



trotted with the ease and facility with which a thoroughbred 

 runs. I doubt if any other trotter ever gave to both unin- 

 itiated and initiated observers such thrills as did the little 

 chestnut mare." 



The following story of Lou Dillon was prepared recently 

 by Millard Sanders, who, as perhaps everybody knows, 

 taught her from colthood and made her the first two-minute 

 trotter: 



"Before beginning the story of Lou Dillon it may, per- 

 haps, be well to go back to the few years prior to her advent 

 and note what the opinion was as to the probability of ever 

 seeing a mile trotted in two minutes. There may have been 

 some among the many thousands of horse enthusiasts who 

 believed such a thing to be among the future possibilities. 

 But as I recollect it they were very few and scattering. As 

 a matter of fact I do not recall a single one among my wide 

 acquaintance who even allowed himself to dream that there 

 ever would be a trotted mile in two minutes. True, in 1897, 

 Star Pointer had paced a mile in 1:591/4 but the general 

 belief was that the pacer had four or five seconds more speed 

 than the trotter — that is, the pacing gait was that much the 

 speedier. I believe it had been 'scientifically' figured out 

 that the trotter would never reach the two-minute mark. 



"Those who were not active in the field of the trotter 

 cannot begin to imagine the furore Lou Dillon created all 

 over the land, all over the world, in fact, when she trotted 

 in two minutes at Readville. The target at that time was 

 the 2:021/4 world's record of Cresceus and almost any owner 

 would have been delighted to have his horse trot a mile in 

 2:02 for that would have given him the championship. My 

 faith in the coming of the so-called impossible made me the 

 subject of many good-natured jibes. But the two-minute 

 trotter arrived and she took her championship honors, not 

 by a small part of a second but by two and a quarter seconds. 

 Naturally that wonderful mile was a great event. The press 

 acclaimed it and the horse world took on new life and greater 

 animation. 



"The eff"ect the arrival of the two-minute trotter had upon 

 the men who had long been identified with training is best 



