A record field of ponies are poised to jockey for bragging rights when the 2003-04 harness racing season officially gets underway at Vesey Street tonight (7 p.m.).

With race track facilities already bursting at the seams, it's now anticipated a total of 43 ponies will make it to the start line for tonight's scheduled 24 heats.

"We have a lot of good things in store for this year," promised Driving Horse and Pony Club president Charles Whited yesterday.

"With the amount of quality ponies now competing and the way the entries have increased we expect a lot of big things this year."

The first thing Whited expects to see is a new track record established. Michael DeCosta's 14-year-old veteran Grand Shady presently holds that mark.

"We expect the track record to be broken this year with the quality of horses that are here now. Everybody is just so upbeat," added Whited, entering his second term as president of the thriving club.

"We all took a bit of a licking from Fabian and so most of us lost a week or two replacing roofs and repairing barns and stuff. That's why we postponed the season for one week. But judging by the look of things, not even that has failed to dampen people's spirits and willingness to go - and it has already shown in the numbers."

Others expected to again be in the thick of the hunt for top honours are Eddie Roque's Tuxedo's Bowtie, Gold Mate driven by Joe Correia and Michael DeCosta's GV Colonel Spence in the Free-For-All Division which is reserved for the fastest group of ponies on the Island.

All eyes are also expected to be centred on Michael DeCosta's Pocket Change who set a new track record last season for the most consecutive wins (19) and Ceramic Shamrock, who was clocked as the fastest two-year-old pony.

This season will see six new ponies making their debuts at Vesey Street, among them Joe Vieira's Tuxedo's Honour which is the sister to world record holder GV Sir Tux.

Apart from the Free-For-All (all ponies running under 1.07 and faster), entries will be grouped according to their qualifying times against rivals posting equal times among their respective time bars.

"We will have all sorts of guns out tomorrow and we are now expecting close to 70 ponies to be at the track by Boxing Day," added Whited. " So we have a lot of good things in store for this season."