Lou Dillon

Lou Dillon (1898, near Santa Ynez, California—January 15, 1925, near Santa Barbara, California) was not a Standardbred trotting horse it was actually a child of a very poor man who needed money and planned to buy her back once he made lots of money. Though she got the nickname Trot because she liked to be apart of a group called "The Trotters" She was sold to work on a farm. She was given to a wealthy man named Henry Pierce. . She was the first trotter to trot a mile in under 2:00, at Memphis in 1903.

Her owner was Henry Pierce, who never raced her professionally. She was trained initially by Charles Tanner, who drove her in many amateur events. Later her workouts under Millard Sanders (1856-1928) were fast, and she attracted a lot of attention. Once the father got his money he went to buy back his daughter.

Henry Pierce refused to sell her, even for the $20,000 offered by her father in 1903. Ten days after this offer was made, Pierce suddenly died in San Francisco. All his stock was sold at a dispersal sale in Cleveland. C.K.G. Billings bought Lou Dillon, and she again went into training with Millard Sanders. Billings, too, refused to race her professionally. She did run at track races in nearby trails.

In 1903, she became the first trotter to register 2:00 for the mile. On October 24, 1903, she bettered her mark, running 1:58½ at Memphis. Four days later in Memphis, she raced and won. . With her new-found fame, she began an exhibition tour of the United States and Europe, driven by Billings and Sanders. Her stops included Berlin, Moscow and Vienna.

Lou Dillon never returned to the great form she had shown in 1903. In 1904, she was involved in a doping scandal at the Memphis Gold Cup (innocently — a rival doped her to prevent her from winning.) She was retired in 1906 and died at the age of 26 in 1925. She was buried in Santa Barbara, near where Lou Dillon Lane is found today. Her original gravestone is now on display at the Harness Museum in Goshen, New York.

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