by Dean A. Hoffman

by Dean Hoffman

It seems almost prehistoric now, but I remember the first 2:00 mile I ever saw.

Why? Because it was a big deal back then. No, it wasn’t Star Pointer pacing the first 2:00 mile in 1897. Nor was it Dan Patch pacing in 1:55 behind a windshield.

The first 2:00 mile I saw was when Curly Smart drove a Victory Song pacer named Smart Money to victory at The Red Mile in 1962. A few races earlier I’d seen Billy Haughton win in 2:00.3 with the sophomore pacing filly Stand By.

Smart Money thus became the first name on a list of all the 2:00 miles I maintained for several years. A list of 2:00 miles seems quaint, too, because the march of Standardbred speed has accelerated so fast that a 2:00 mile is as outdated as Pony Express mail delivery.

Statistics provided to me by David Carr, head of the USTA’s Information & Research Dept., show that we recently passed the 100,000 mark in number of 2:00 pacers. At last count, some 100,289 pacers had 2:00 marks.

There are now 15,175 trotters with records of 2:00 or faster.

Obviously, after the 2:00 mile lost its magic, the new speed standard became 1:55.

Three years after I saw Smart Money I saw my first 1:55 mile when Bret Hanover paced that time at Indianapolis. If Bret Hanover were alive today and paced in 1:55 in a group of top 3-year-old pacers, he’d just get hot and tired.

In 1962, when I saw Smart Money win in 1:59.3, there were only 112 miles in 2:00 or faster in the entire sport. Even three years later when Bret was making headlines, there were only 117 2:00 miles.

(Still, that certainly seemed like rapid progress to some horsemen. Just two decades earlier at the end of World War II, the sport had seen only eight 2:00 miles in the entire season).

How many 2:00 miles where there in 2006?

56,410.

If my math is even close to being correct, that’s more than 500 times as many 2:00 miles as there were back in 1962 when I saw my first one.

We know that the 2:00 mile ceased to be the standard of excellence decades ago. If I had to pinpoint it to a year, however, I’d take aim at America’s Bicentennial year: 1976.

In 1975 there had been 714 miles in 2:00 or faster. Suddenly in 1976, we had 1,845, more than twice as many. What happened? Did the tracks suddenly start to run downhill?

There are two reasons, I think, for the surge in speed in 1976.

The first was the popularization of the bent-shaft sulky. For decades, sulky design had been basically static. Oh, sure, there had been experiments with the single-shaft and wishbone sulkies, but the traditional straight shaft sulky was the norm.

In 1976 the bent-shaft bike (then called the “modified sulky”) spread like wildfire across the sport. One horseman, however, who wasn’t convinced, was the legendary Joe O’Brien. He continued to race his horses to the old-style sulky and the 1976 Adios, won by O’Brien and Armbro Ranger, might have been the last major event won by a horse pulling the straight-shaft bike.

The other epic event that changed harness racing in 1976 was the opening of the Meadowlands on reclaimed swamp land in New Jersey. The facility attracted the sport’s best horses to race over the roomy mile oval, producing 2:00 miles with regularity. Many of the horses capable of 2:01 to 2:03 wins at Yonkers and Roosevelt were churning out sub-2:00 miles with regularity at the Meadowlands.

The 10-horse fields at the Meadowlands meant that it was likely that at least one horse would be out and moving, forcing a faster pace. The result was predictable. By 1977 there were 2,355 miles in 2:00 or faster.

Once the dam burst, there was a flood of 2:00 miles. In 1984, there were more than 10,000 such miles. By 1988, the total passed 20,000.

Even 1:55 is no longer a standard of excellence. Today there are 22,280 pacers and 995 trotters with 1:55 marks. I was fortunate enough to see the first 1:55 trotting mile when Nevele Pride beat Greyhound’s epic mark in an Indianapolis time trial.

Trotters are now flirting with the 1:50 mark and Majestic Son is taking dead aim at that record this fall. Pacers long since stopped flirting with the 1:50 mark. Once Niatross broke the dam with his 1:49.1 time trial in 1980, there have been 557 pacers with 1:50 marks.

The Standardbred marches on, going faster and faster with each season. Where the speed progression will end — or even if it will end — is anyone’s guess.

History of the 2:00 mile
Year Number
1897………………… 1
1898………………… 3
1899………………… 1
1900…………….. none
1901…………….. none
1902………………… 4
1903……………….. 13
1904………………… 3
1905……………….. 10
1906………………… 7
1907………………… 3
1908………………… 3
1909………………… 1
1910………………… 6
1911………………… 4
1912…………….. none
1913………………… 3
1914……………….. 10
1915………………… 6
1916………………… 8
1917………………… 1
1918………………… 5
1919………………… 1
1920………………… 5
1921……………….. 11
1922……………….. 18
1923……………….. 10
1924………………… 5
1925………………… 4
1926………………… 4
1927………………… 3
1928………………… 9
1929………………… 4
1930………………… 9
1931………………… 6
1932………………… 9
1933………………… 1
1934……………….. 11
1935……………….. 12
1936……………….. 21
1937……………….. 22
1938……………….. 46
1939……………….. 23
1940……………….. 10
1941……………….. 14
1942………………… 6
1943………………… 3
1944……………….. 13
1945………………… 8
1946……………….. 10
1947……………….. 10
1948……………….. 15
1949……………….. 23
1950……………….. 26
1951……………….. 35
1952……………….. 49
1953……………….. 70
1954……………….. 63
1955……………….. 60
1956……………….. 66
1957……………….. 58
1958……………….. 77
1959……………….. 89
1960……………… 120
1961……………… 125
1962……………… 112
1963……………… 139
1964……………… 134
1965……………… 118
1966……………… 206
1967……………… 181
1968……………… 204
1969……………… 209
1970……………… 306
1971……………… 381
1972……………… 445
1973……………… 485
1974……………… 682
1975……………… 714
1976…………… 1,845
1977…………… 2,355
1978…………… 2,849
1979…………… 3,152
1980…………… 3,898
1981…………… 4,929
1982…………… 6,302
1983…………… 8,616
1984…………. 10,899
1985…………. 13,745
1986…………. 14,737
1987…………. 17,483
1988…………. 20,271
1989…………. 23,829
1990…………. 27,435
1991…………. 29,824
1992…………. 33,083
1993…………. 36,916
1994…………. 37,639
1995…………. 39,494
1996…………. 38,224
1997…………. 39,379
1998…………. 42,508
1999…………. 44,501
2000…………. 45,311
2001…………. 46,831
2002…………. 48,570
2003…………. 46,919
2004…………. 51,694
2005…………. 53,138
2006…………. 56,410
Total:………. 860,792