A season that promised much for Simsfield Hardtimes has come to a premature and disappointing ending.

Aaron Sims’s Indiana-bred stallion has been ruled out for the remainder of the harness racing campaign through a foot injury sustained while competing in the Boxing Day Stakes races at the Bermuda Equestrian Centre.

“He’s out for the rest of the season,” owner Sims confirmed. “He pulled up in the Boxing Day Stakes races when we tied with Cherokee’s Ironman.

“He pulled up a little bit sore and I didn’t think much of it at first. But then the next day he was definitely favouring one leg and so I ended up having X-rays done and stuff like that because we thought he may have fractured his leg. At that point we didn’t know what had happened and thought it might be pretty serious.

“We had the X-rays and the veterinarian confirmed that it’s a severe bruise on his foot from either standing on it or twisting it a bit.

“It’s a shame and disappointing but at the end of the day, I’m glad I still have a horse that’s looking like he will be coming back in full form for next season.”

Before suffering injury, Sims’s four-year-old pony had come on in leaps and bounds to surpass the expectations of many.

Simsfield Hardtimes was tied with top pony Cherokee’s Ironman going into the finals of the Boxing Day Stakes races and leads the Aged Division in the Best Three Series, which concludes with the finals at Vesey Street on Sunday.

“It’s a shame because he was leading the Best Three Series going into Sunday’s final which would have been a pretty interesting race,” Sims said.

“We were also tied for first place [with Cherokee’s Ironman] going into the Boxing Day Stakes final and he wasn’t even supposed to be racing against those older horses. We just did it to make up the races and make it more exciting and then unfortunately he got injured.

“It’s a shame because he’s young. He’s only fours years old and he was the third fastest on the track this season and so it is disappointing.”

Cherokee’s Ironman went on to retain his Boxing Day Stakes Aged title with top driver Tyler Lopes at the helm and is now the firm favourite in the same division going into Sunday’s Best Three Series finale.

Arnold Manders’s gelding recorded the season’s fastest time of 1min 03sec flat last month competing in the Free for All, and is gunning for a clean sweep of Boxing Day Stakes, Best Three Series and Champion of Champions titles this season.