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Temuka Leader, Volume I, Issue 90, 26 October 1878, Page 3

Improving the Trotting Horse. —A few years ago the speed of the trotting horse had been brought to its best point, so it was thought,' when Lady Suffolk made a mi e in two nrnutes and twenty-seven seconds—or 2.27, as the announcement is made in the racing reports. Before that, 2.40 was considered the “low-down notch.” The 2.27 performances stood unrivalled for a long time, and then a little brown mare was found with sufficient power..to bring the record down to 2.24, and the time was unequalled for some years. Then there came a number of swift game horses, and Flora Temple finally beat her own time and left 2’l9f as the goal to be passed by her successors to the title of “ Queen of the Turf.” Goldsmith Maid finally came and astonished horsemen with a succession of triumphs, scoring 2.18, then 2,17, and finally getting the fastest time settled at 2.14|. "A number ot very fast trotters came to the front during the time of Goldsmith Maid, hut none succeeded in making a triumph that was not afterwards surpassed by the. little mare. Now, however, we have the announcement that Rams has found the way to fly through the air (vide Muybridge’s pictures) with sufficient velocity to mark a lower notch in the racing record—the telegraph announces that Rams trotted a mile at Buffalo in 2.185! The improvement in trotting horses has been very rapid in the United I States, where more attention is paid to cultivating that gait than in any other ! part of the world, American trotters are famous everywhere,—‘ Alta California,’