A REMARKABLE RACE.

Gisborne Times, Volume X, Issue 996, 15 September 1903, Page 2

A REMARKABLE RACE.

DREAM OF AMERICAN SPORTS MEN REALISED.

(Per R.M.S. Sierra at Auckland.); San Francisco, Aug. 27. The following iB the history of a remarkable race run at Boston on August 24th. The dream of horsemen for the past quarter of a century was realised to day, when Lon Dillon on the track at Readville to-day trotted the mile in just two minutes. She took the record Cresceus Crown held for two years for the mile in 2.2£. The mile of to-day was in quarters, the first 0.30£, the second 0.30 J, tbe third 0.30 J, fourth 0.23. The sleek little mare flashed under the wire at the finish in a condition to go another mile at a gait fast enough to be troublesome to many rivals of fair reputation. Six thousand spectators watched the performance, and cheered the mare, driver, and owner, Mr C. K. G. Billings. Lou Dillon is a chestnut mare, by Sidney Dillon, and is five j’ears old. She was bred in California, and had never started in an exhibition race in her life until last May, when Mr Billings bought her in Cleveland for the sum of 12,500 dollars. To-day the mare is priceless. Lou Dillon, under full headway, approached the starting line with a poetry of graceful motion, which a premier danseuse could not excel, and which made the runners in her company look like a coupie of gawks. The horses reached the quarter before the crowd realised that the race was on, and then all saw that the mare was travelling so evenly and with so little fuss that nobody conceived she was [ trotting in record-breaking time, yet she had almost overtaken the runner. The pace-maker spurted a bit on nearing the three-quarter mark, and gave the mare a better chance to show »the stuff that was in her. She closed up the lap on the sweep around into the home stretch, and made a dash, for the finish of the mile was at hand. The hoofs of the mare and runners beat dirt in one bunch, and sent a cloud of fme dust up into the sunlit air. Without a touch of tbe whip Saunders, the driver, spoke the words which lengthened the mare’s strides, and under the wire she went as last queen of the turf in both hemispheres. Lou Dillon was bred at Santa Rosa stock farm, near San Francisco, and her driver, Naliard Saunders, is practically a Californian driver. The performance of Lou Dillon has made Sidney Dillon famous. Another of his get, Dolly Dillon, has the fastest three heats-to her credit of any living mare.