Page 92 - July 2022

Truckle Feature, Fastest Quarter Mile of His Time
Point O Two
by Scott Wells
The debate about who was the fastest horse to ever live will never be settled. So many factors change from year to year, much less from decade to decade, that exact scientific
calculations are impossible. And of course, track conditions and wind conditions come into play, as do the competitive circumstances of every given race. Even air density makes a difference in race times. The air at sea level at Los Alamitos is heavier and therefore slower than is the air at Ruidoso’s 6,400 feet of altitude. For all those reasons and more, it’s not as easy as just relying on the electronic timer to determine the fastest horse of all time. But it’s a start.
Record times for runners, both equine
and human, have made for widespread improvements through modern times. Naturally, the improvements have been more easily measured at the longer distances. The four- minute mile for humans was such a distant goal early in the 20th century that some scientists insisted it was humanly impossible and would remain so. Yet when that barrier was broken, almost immediately sub-four-minute miles became practically commonplace until today
a runner must run better than 3:50 to even
be considered top class. Secretariat’s Belmont time for a mile and a half of 2:24 broke the old World Track Record by two and three-fifths
seconds (about 13-lengths). Aside from that extreme case over such a long distance, most Track and World Records are lowered in tiny increments over long periods of time. Many Thoroughbred experts have questioned, and lamented, that human records have improved so much more quickly than the time records for horses. However, it seems obvious to me that since horses have been selectively bred and timed for speed for hundreds of years and humans have not, that the great leaps forward for equine times took place many generations in the past. And of course, for the shorter the distances we’re talking about, the smaller the incremental improvements.
In that context, the American Quarter Horse has outperformed the norm by a surprising margin. The AQHA was only formed 82
years ago and at that time the world record
for 440 yards was 22 seconds flat, set by the sprinting legend Woven Web, a King Ranch Thoroughbred, who was best known in her Quarter Horse races as Miss Princess. If my memory serves me correctly, that record was first lowered by Woven Web herself then equaled
The AQHA was only formed 82 years ago and at that time the world record for 440 yards was 22 seconds flat, set by the sprinting legend Woven Web (shown) also known as Miss Princess in Quarter Horse races.
90 SPEEDHORSE July 2022
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