FAMOUS MATCHES

Otago Witness, Issue 2399, 22 February 1900, Page 40

FAMOUS MATCHES

Trotting matches, generally under saddle, were much in vogue 100 years ago, and more recently. At one time owners used to put a welter weight up, with the curigus idea of " steadying " the trotter, and in deference to this theory the horse often had to carry from 12.0 to 15.0, or even more, and the race track was the high road. Small wonder their legs' soon went to pieces. On October 21, 1816, a man named Hall undertook to trot a small pony from Whitechapel Church to the 25 milestone on the Essex road and back again in five hours. He did it with eight minutes to spare, but was so exhausted that he had to be lifted from his saddle and carried into the nearest inn. What condition the pony was in is not staled. Another such race against time was run in the same year at Chester. Mr Collier, a Liverpool veterinary surgeon, undertook to ride a pony 18 miles within the hour on the Chester road. He did it easily within one and a-half minutes of the time specified, having used neither whip nor spur. One remarkable performance was undertaken, if contemporary records are to bo credited, to cure a severe headache! Mr J. R. Scott, having had company to dine with him, was kept up to the small hours by the sacred rites of hospitality, and all the rest of the night by the results of entertaining. He rose at half-past 5, and started for a very long ride to shake of? that headache. Mr Scott was evidently a gentleman who did not do things by halves, for he determined to ride from London to Cheltenham, 101j> miles, in five hours, if he could, in six if he could not. He had eight horses, four of his own and four "promiscuous hacks": he had several falls by the way : nevertheless, he reached the Plough at Cheltenham before 1 o'clock, haying pprformed the distance in under six hours !