Smart Machine and driver Candyce Martins took another step towards track records during the last round of harness racing at the Bermuda Equestrian Centre.

The duo posted a 1.02 flat in the opening heat of the Free for All division to slash a full second off of the season’s fastest time, which they already held heading into the meeting at the Devonshire facility last weekend.

“I am very impressed with how Smart Machine is running,” Martins told The Royal Gazette.

“I don’t really have any expectations for him. I am just letting him do his thing, the pony enjoys it and I enjoy racing him. He’s showing that he’s fit and getting fitter every race day as the weeks go and I am excited going into the new year.”

The time was three-fifths of a second shy of the gelding’s record (1.01/2), jointly held by War Machine and Simsfield Hardtimes, and four-fifths off the overall track record (1.01/1) established by Tyler Lopes’s retired mare Google Me.

Simsfield Stables gelding Red October and driver Philip Correia produced the second-fastest time on the day of 1.03/3 in the Free for All division, while Smart Machine and Martins also had the third fastest of 1.03/4.

Martins chalked up two wins with Smart Machine and another with 12-year-old mare Double Time, the Bermuda-bred record holder, in the same time bar to complete an impressive hat-trick.

“Double Time is an older mare and is the one I got the Bermuda-bred record (1.02/1) on a few years ago,” Martins said.

“I don’t expect too much from her. She’s just racing and she exceeded my expectations having run a 1.02/4 the other day, which I was very pleased with.”

Tahzil Flood and Correia were the remaining multiple heat winners. Flood produced two wins at the helm of his gelding HuntinForGold in the Junior Free for All division, while Correia achieved the same feat with Red October in the Free for All division, reserved for the island’s fastest harness ponies.