AMERICAN TROTTING RECORDS.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume III, Issue 883, 8 December 1916, Page 2

AMERICAN TROTTING RECORDS.

EIGHTY YEARS OF SPEEDING. Quite the outstanding feature of the racing witnessed on the "Grand Circuit'' this season has been the remarkable achievements of Lee Axworthy. This son of Guy Axworthy wound up a great campaign at Lexington by lowering the.trotting stallion record to lmin oß]sec, thereby coming within the odd fraction of Uhlan's gelding record of lmin 58scc. Lee Axworthy 's successful tilts with "Father Time "draw pointed attention to the remarkable progress made by America's speed,merchants during the 80 odd years that light harness racing has been established as the national sport of the American people.

An Early Champion. The first trotting stallion that ever beat :imin appears to have been Andrew Jackson, a black horse, foaled in 1827. Just 82 years ago he trotted a race under saddle at Hunting Park, Philadelphia, in which he won at two mile heats in ■jiiiiu 2(isec and smin 25see, or at the rate of 2min 43soe and 2min 42* sec to the mile. On October 27, 1830, on the same track, lie lowered the record to 2min 42sec, and then to 2min oSJsec in a winning race, again at two mile heats under saddle. This earliest champion of trotting stallions was got by Young Bashaw, a son of the imported Arabian horse. Grand Bashaw. He. was bred by Joseph Hancock, of Salem. N.J., and was foaled the property of Daniel Jeffrey, a brickniakcr, of the Germantown Road, near Philadelphia. When born he rolled into a clay pit and was pulled out hist in time to save what promised to be a miserable life. Mr Jeffrey offered any of the boys a dollar if they would kill him and bury him out of sight, but Mrs Jeffrey warned them that the boy who killed the colt should never eat at her table again, and so saved the greatest, horse of his day. In his first race at Hunting Park, in 1834, Andrew Jackson trotted against Sally Miller, whose record of 2min 37see was the fastest ever made in harness by any trotting horse up to that time. She it "was that forced Edwin Forrest out in 2min 3.Hsee under saddle in 1834. Two years after her lefeat by the stallion she was bred to him, and in 18,57 produced the black colt afterwards known as Long Island Black Hawk. In one of the first races on record for stallions this horse defeated Gassius M. Clay, a grandson of Andrew Jackson, in 1849, lowering the record to 2min 38sec in harness. Another Son of Andrew Jackson. The next of the champion stallions was another son of Andrew Jackson, Kemble Jackson by name. He was foaled in 1844, and in April, 1853, he trotted a race to wagon at the Union .Course, in which Hiram Woodruff drove him the third heat in 2min 'Msec. He died three months after this race. Woodruff, to the day of his own death, called him the greatest weight-pulling trotter he had driven. To prevent this fast stallion from throwing his head down between his knees when he broke, the overdraw check rein, now in almost universal use, was invented,' the late Frank Work having, it is said, suggested the idea to Woodruff.

The famous Morgan horse Ethan Allen, driven by Dan Mace, wrested the honours from Kemble Jackson in a race to wagon at Boston, in 1856, when he trotted a heat in 2min 323 sec. Two years later he distanced Geo. M. Patchen in the first heat of a match race to wagon at the Union Course, trotting in 2min 28sec, and thus gaining the distinction of being the first stallion to enter the 2min 30sec list. Patchen took the record away from him the following year by trotting in 2min 26Jsec, and in 1860 carried it down to 2min 25sec, 2min 24 sec, and 2min in races with Ethan Alieu and Flora Temple. This champion stallion was a son of Cassius M. Clay, and therefore a direct descendant of Andrew Jackson, the first king of the trotting stallions. The Morgans, then in the heyday of their popularity, once more snatched the record from their rivals, in duly, 1868, when Fearnaught trotted in 2min 23] sec in winning a purse of £2OOO at Buffalo, with Dan Mace behind him. This horse was a son of Young Morrill, a direct descendant of the original Justin Morgan, and was a, show horse as well as a trotter. His reign was short, for George Wilkes, first of the Hambletonians, lowered the record to 2min 22sec in October of that year in a stallion race against Rhode Island and Draco Prince, at Providence, .lay Gould, another son of Hambletonian, equalled the record in 1871, and in the following year cut it down to 2min 21Jsce.

Then came the dynasty of Smuggler, a converted pacer of obscure breeding, that defeated Goldsmith Maid and all the best trotters of the day. He set the record at 2min 20!Jscc on August 5, 1874. ami though Mambriuo Gift, the only Mainbrino horse that ever held the record, cut it to 2min 20sec. at Rochester the following week, Smuggler regained the supremacy at Boston, in September, and held it 10 long years by trotting in Liniiit L'dsec, then in 2min 17-Jsee, 2miu 17sec, 2iiiin 16|sec, 2min and, finally, in 2niin 15] sec, in a losing sixheat race against Goldsmith Maid at Hartford in 1876. Smuggler at Last Dethroned. It was not until 1884 that the great Hambletonian family produced a trotting stallion fast enough to dethrone the converted pacer from West Virginia. I'hallas, son of Dictator, by Hambletonian, came along in July of that year and won a fourth heat in 2niin 13 if sec at Chicago, driven by lOdwin D. Bither, who is still in the sulky. Scarcely had the enthusiasm run its course before Maxie Cobb, a sou of Happy Medium, owned by Isador Cohnfeld, of New York, and driven by "Honest John." Murphy, at Providence, clipped half a second off the record and set it at 2min 13 |sec. Axtell, a grandson of the earlier champion, George Wilkes, ami the groat - grandsiro of Lee Axworthy, caused a tremendous sensation in 1889 by setting flu' stallion record at 2niiu 12sec, when he was only three years old. The lowa farmer boy who bred, developed and drove I he colt sold him on Ihe spot for £21,000, and then went home and de veloped another, Allerton, also by a sou of George Wilkes, with which, in 1891, he again bent all records for trotting stallions, setting the mark at 2min in sec, and later at 2mii) 9Jsec. Allerton was thus the first stallion to trot, in I'niin lOsec and the first to beat that mark. C. W. Williams, who enjoys the distinction of being the only man to breed two champions, is now an evan-

gelist, but differing from the other re-' tired sporting revivalist in that he ae- j cepts no compensation for his work. ; Between Axtell and Allerton the late i C. IT. Nelson, of Maine, slipped in the speedy bay stallion Nelson, bred and driven by Nelson, the man, and four | times lowered the record. Nelson was a son of Young Rolfe, 2min 21] see, and through the dam of his grandsire trac- j ed to Iron's Cadmus, the grandsire of' Smuggler. Last of the champions before the advent of the pneumatic sulky revolutionised all trotting records, Palo Alto, a half thoroughbred horse, by Electioneer, j son of Hambletonian, lowered the record to 2min B:|sec at Stockton, Cab, in November, 1891, driven by Charles Marvin, j the man who developed and drove Smuggler in all his races and-trials against time. Advent of Pneumatic Sulky. Kremlin, whose death at the advanced age of 2!) was reported recently, was the first of the champion stallions to make his record to the light running pneuhatic, which is nowadays accounted fully ose- faster than the old high weel sulky. After him came Directum, Creseeus and The Harvester, whose performances are too well known to require mention, and this year Lee Axworthy, the great five-year-old that has four times lowered the record, beating the best performance of The Harvester every time he has started and making himself the first stallion to trot in "even time," as well as the first to beat 2min, ami the only trotting horse, save Uhlan, with a legitimate, record of 2min or better. Between the 2min 4,'ssec of Andrew Jackson and the lmiu of Lee Axworthy there is a gap of which represents the progress of 82 years in developing the speed of the trotting horse. From Andrew Jackson to Ethan Allen, the first stallion to trot in 2min 30sec, was 24 years; from Ethan Allen to Mambrino Gift, the first to trot in 2miu 20sec, was 16 years; from the latter horse to Allerton, the pioneer 2min lOsee stallion, 17 more, and from Allerton to Lee Axworthy 25 years. TEMrLAK.