Special Gold continued his meteoric ascent in local harness racing during the Boxing Day races.

The four-year-old stallion, jointly owned by Lee Raynor Jr and his son Sergio Raynor, ran a lifetime best time of 1:02/1 competing in the Free for All during the first half of the race schedule.

Special Gold’s time was two fifths of a second shy of the stallion’s record of 1:01/4, achieved by Colin Mello’s retired stallion Big Red Machine in 2011.

It was also the fastest time recorded on the day, which was later matched by Google Me, the overall track and mare’s record holder, during the Aged division stakes race held in the second half of the race schedule.

“I am very proud of Special Gold,” Lee Raynor Jr said. “It’s been a lot of work and a lot of patience.

“We had our trails and tribulations last year with sickness and different health problems. He’s overcome that and we’re thankful.”

Sergio Raynor added: “It’s been pretty hard. As a two-year-old he was really good and then last year as a three-year-old he got hurt and had his ins and outs with sickness.”

Special Gold achieved his lifetime best with top driver Kiwon Waldron in the bike.

“He went well,” Waldron said. “He was pretty sharp so I thought I’d give him a shot. He did all of the work really.”

Raynor’s stallion has come into his own this season and has already exceeded expectations.

“This year I had planned to make the Free for All time bar by the end of the race season,” Sergio Raynor said.

“That was my goal and I’m just happy that he got to that goal a little earlier. I always wanted to go in a 1:02 and I finally did it.”

Special Gold was ultimately denied sole bragging rights on the day after Robert and Tyler Lopes’s mare, Google Me, equalled the time en route to victory in the opening aged stakes race with teenaged driver Candyce Martins in the bike.

“She was very good and feeling great and did a 1:02/1 on the rail in the first heat,” Martins said.

Google Me was denied the sweep after Simsfield Stables’ gelding, Simsfield Hardtimes, won the second heat in the aged stakes. “I was expecting him to go faster but not every day is a fast day,” Aaron Sims, who trains Simsfield Hardtimes, said.

“We got a fairly good average time and it’s still another day to go so I’m definitely encouraged.”

Simsfield Hardtimes and Google Me are two of the fastest ponies in local harness racing and share the season’s fastest time, which stands at 1:01/3, which they both achieved on December 14.

Inwood Stables’ Somegoldsomewhere, Kelsey Durham’s Rockeyed Optimist and Charles Whited Jr’s Gold n Glory all swept both heats contested in the two-year-old, three-year-old and four-year-old stakes races.

Graceland Stables’s Itsallaboutme and M & M Racing split the two heats in the remaining aged stakes races.

In previous years, the Boxing Day stakes races have served as a qualifier for the New Year’s Day stakes races. However, the format has been revised and will now see all entries compete over both race days with the winners to be determined by combined average fastest times. New Year’s Day harness racing starts at 1pm.