Cherokee’s Ironman was the star of the show at the Bermuda Equestrian Centre last the weekend.

Arnold Manders’s gelding posted a blistering 1:03 flat competing in the Free for All to cut three fifths of a second off the season’s previous fastest time, which it had shared with Full Throttle Racing’s mare IC’s Shakedown going into Sunday’s race programme.

The six-year-old horse’s impressive time caught owner-trainer Manders by surprise.

“I never thought we would go around those horses and get a 1:03,” he said. “But I always knew he had potential because we knew that when we bought him in Indiana.

“He holds all the records for a two-year-old on the quarter-mile, five-sixteenth and half-mile tracks in Indiana as well as the three-year-old record on the half-mile and five-sixteenth tracks.

“I always knew he had it in him and, other than Big Red Machine, he’s one of the fastest horses bought there. It just took him a little while to adjust to the track and I think he’s got it down now.”

Cherokee’s Ironman posted the season’s fastest time en route to winning the day’s final heat by a commanding six-lengths with driver Tyler Lopes at the helm.

Manders believes the best is yet to come from his horse.

“I think on a good day, with the right temperature and track, he can probably go faster than a 1:03,” he said.

With the season-ending Champion of Champions just around the corner, Cherokee’s Ironman appears to be peaking at the right time.

Manders, the former Driving Horse and Pony Club president, said it is anyone’s guess who will win the coveted Champion of Champions.

“All of the horses are around the same calibre so it’s wide open,” he said.

“We have so many others that are going around at the same time I’m sure with the right time someone else will go in that time. GV Crystal Ball, IC’s Shakedown, Brona’s Mike and Simsfield Hardtimes have all been under 1:04, so it’s a possibility that somebody can get that fast.”

Colin Mello’s retired stallion, Big Red Machine, holds the track record of 1:01/4 achieved in 2011.

“I don’t think anybody is going to break Big Red’s record,” Manders said. “I think he’s one in an million and a freak of nature.

“I know records are meant to be broken. But I don’t think anybody in this current crop is going to go around in a 1:01/4. That’s too fast.”

Cherokee’s Ironman also posted the day’s third-fastest time of 1:04/2 with GV Crystal Ball and Brona’s Mike grabbing a share of the day’s second-fastest time of 1:04/1.

Lopes was the day’s top driver with five victories on three different ponies, including his grandfather’s gelding, Pastor Paul.

Philip Correia and Ryan Burrows were the only other drivers with multiple victories.

Harness racing continues at Vesey Street tomorrow night.