CYCLIST V. RACEHORSE.

Auckland Star, Volume XXX, Issue 29, 4 February 1899, Page 5 (Supplement)

CYCLIST V. RACEHORSE.

The mile record on asafety bicycle has just been lowered again, this time by a coloured American called 'Major' Taylor. The dusky champion has covered the mile in 1.32 flat, some watches making it 1.31 4-5.

Some idea of the time made by a flying bicyclist who progresses at the rate Taylor did may be gained by comparing his time with the records of fast running and trotting horses. Timing running horses is not the feature in England that it is in America, but it is safe to say that no races are run in this country faster than the mile made by Balvator, an American Futurity winner, on a specially prepared track, when the horse was specially trained at the distance. He ran It in 1.351.

Let us suppose, then, that 'Major' Tay-

lor, in as good condition as when he made his mile in 1.32, is matched to race against a running1 horse as good and as tit as Balvator when he made his record against tihme, a record pacer.an American trotter of the highest class, arid an English crack capable of trotting twenty miles in the hour. The track is to be in the best possible condition for each champion, and all the conditions are to be favourable.

The results of such a race would not be for a moment in doubt. The bicyclist would lead from start to finish, and at the end his opponents would be strung out behind him in hopeless fashion.

Taylor's nearest competitor, of course, would be the running horse, but, figuring that a horse running a mile in 1.35J is travelling at the rate of 15.4 yards per second, the racehorse would be a good C 7 yards behind at the winning post.

The pacer would be second, but he would only have got past the three-quar-ter mile post by 37 yards. On the basis of 143 yards per second the pacer would have covered, at the conclusion of the mile by the bicyclist, 1357 yards, while the American trotter, going at the rate of 14Jyds per second, would only have got 14 yards past the three-quarter mile post.

A horse driven at the rate of twenty miles an hour or a bicyclist riding his miles in three minutes each is going at great speed, but a 'three-minutes-to-the-mile' horse, in arace with Taylor, would only have covered 920 yards, or only 40 yards more than half the distance, when tJae colourftd cvyelist shot past the finish.