88 THE TWO-MINUTE TROTTERS 



words, the trotter whose brush limit is a quarter in thirty 

 seconds would hardly be expected to trot a full mile at that 

 rate of speed, as almost any trainer will tell you, if he has 

 had any experience with extreme speed. Inasmuch as Arion 

 Guy was able to show two quarters in his Kentucky Futurity 

 race each better than thirty seconds, the quite natural de- 

 duction is that he was not many, if any, removes from a 

 two-minute trotter that day. With the ability to carry his 

 best clip, and grant that it was but 29^/2 seconds for the 

 quarter, half the way, he would have been required to do 

 no better than 30^ seconds average for the other two quar- 

 ters to trot the mile in two minutes. 



That he could have been brought to that point in mile 

 speed ability there would appear to be no reasonable doubt. 

 But he had been trained with his rich futurity engagements 

 in view and with no idea whatever of any trials for a record; 

 yet with that training he developed wonderful speed, and 

 with his superb condition equalled had he been trained with 

 the other object in view he could hardly have failed to give 

 the two-minute list its first three-year-old member. 



Thomas W. Murphy, who trained and raced him as a 

 three-year-old, and who gave him his best record at four 

 years of age, says of him: 



"When I bought him as a two-year-old, after having 

 driven him a mile in about 2:23, he was the possessor of 

 extreme speed." Mr. Harold Childs, who broke and de- 

 veloped the colt through his two-year-old form and whose 

 most interesting letter appears farther along in this chapter, 

 testifies that he "had a great amount of natural trotting speed 

 for a short brush." Evidence sufficient to at least incubate 

 the belief, especially when coupled with that which later 

 came about, that Arion Guy could have been made a two- 

 minute trotter a year before he became one. 



Be that as it may, the colt was in fine fettle all of 1921 

 and was successful in his three assaults on time, the last one 

 recording a mile better than two minutes and trotted in such 

 splendid manner, every foot in its proper place, every foot- 

 fall in true rhythm, that those who witnessed the perform- 

 ance were unanimous in declaring that a much lower record 



