While North American harness racing fans have had plenty to talk about with Foiled Again's exploits at the age of 9, the Southern Hemisphere has been talking about their own version of Foiled Again, more specifically, Australian FFA wonder horse Smoken Up NZ.
Today (December 26), the 11 year old New Zealand-bred continues to be the talk of Australian harness racing with his 1:53.1 (tenths) victory over at track labeled 'Good' at Bray Raceway in Ballarat in the $30,000(AUS) Laser Electrical Lightning Mile to set a new track record in the Group 3 FFA event. With this victory, Smoken Up now has a lifetime record of 70 victories out of 136 starts with earnings over $3.5 million. The 11 year old son of American-bred Tinted Cloud and New Zealand-bred Carnlough Bay took command of the race by outpacing everyone from post position 7 in :26.3 before getting a :30.3 breather in the second panel and going the final half in :56.6 to win by 2.9 meters (almost a length) in a wire to wire victory.
Clearly, at age 11 his best races are likely behind him even though this season he shows a 1:49.9 record in a Group 1 FFA tilt at Tabcorp Park Menangle in the Cordina Sprint on November 23. For the season (which starts on August 1 Down Under), he shows a record of 9-3-2-0 with $138,125 on his race card thus far.
Who knows when it is time for Smoken Up to hang up his hopples? As North American fans can expect from Foiled Again, when the horse says it's time. Until then, this hard hitting pacer will continue to give fans in Australia something to talk about.
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