Simsfield Hardtimes saved the best for last as times continued to heat up during last weekend’s harness racing at Vesey Street.

Aaron Sims’s gelding posted the season’s fastest time of 1:03 flat in the sixteenth and final heat in the Free for All division with Dylan DeSilva at the helm to end last Friday’s racing at the Bermuda Equestrian Centre with a bang.

Simsfield Hardtimes won the heat by two fifths of a second over Andy Stoneham’s, Custard The Dragon, whose blistering time of 1:03/2 might have also surpassed the expectations of many given the season remains in its infancy. Stoneham’s eight-year-old stallion was driven by Andrea Westerfield.

The overall track record stands at 1:01/1 and is held by Google Me, jointly owned by the father and son pair of Robert and Tyler Lopes. Google Me also owns the mare’s and four-year-old’s record and is the only mare to win the coveted Champion of Champions.

Other ponies turning in impressive times last weekend, just two rounds into the new season, were G & S Mello’s, War Machine, and Charles Whited’s, Gold N Glory. Both geldings posted a 1:04/1 competing in the Free for All division, reserved for the fastest ponies on the island.

Jason Peniston’s mare, Reel Patrol, was the most consistent pony on the night after producing back-to-back 1:05 flat in the third and seventh heats with driver Philip Correia in the sulky.

Inwood Stables’ two-year-old colt, SomeGoldSomwhere, was the only multiple winner having swept both heats in the 1:11/4 & Slower division with Christian Truran at the helm.

Nick DeCosta’s Indiana-bred pony is making his debut this season and comes with great expectations as the brother of Pocket de Gold, the former mare’s track record-holder in the Free for All, and half brother of Gold n Glory, who presently holds the two-year-old’s and three-year-old’s track records.