A Miracle Mile At The Lexington Trots

Scott Frost , a two-year-old bay colt pulling an oversized sulky and an undersized driver, raced a mile in two minutes at the Lexington Trots, thus achieving harness racing's equivalent of track and field's four-minute mile. The record had been broken three times before, but each time under ideal time-trial conditions with no competition to interfere.

Going into the Cimarron Ranch Stake, the son of Hoot Mon from Nora by Spencer had won seven straight heats, thanks partially to his canny driver Joe O'Brien , who replaced the normal 26-inch-high sulky with a 30-inch one to keep Scott Frost (left) from banging his wide-swinging hocks against the bike.

The first heat was only a warmup, with Scott Frost winning in 2:04[2/5]. In the second heat, W. T. Maybury's Galophone led to the quarter in a fast 29[3/5], and reached the half in 59[2/5]. Interest in a record quickened at the five-eighths when O'Brien took the lead and passed the three-quarters in 1:30[4/5]. Scott Frost came into the lane all alone, but O'Brien tapped him gently with the whip—the first time in his racing life the horse had felt it. At the finish the electric timer impersonally registered 2:00 for the mile, and Lexington went wild. Later O'Brien explained the whip: "Not to urge him on, because he was going all he could, but just to remind him that the noon whistle hadn't yet blown."