SMOLDA LEAVES HIS MARK

The Ballarat Pacing Cup honour roll is a who’s who of Australasian harness racing over the past five decades.

There’s irrepressible Popular Alm, Gammalite, My Lightning Blue, Sinbad Bay and Our Sir Vancelot to name a few.

And right up there is one New Zealand all-time greats SMOLDA.

He has the distinction of being the only back-to-back winner of the Ballarat Pacing Cup – achieving the feat which sets him aparat in 2016 and 2017.

While the grand old campaigner might now be enjoying retirement, Smolda struck one last time.

Harness Racing Australia has named Smolda the 2017 Australian horse of the year.

Trained by Mark Purdon, Smolda made Ballarat his home for a large part of his Australian campaign early this year.

Smolda made his way Victoria after triumphing in the Inter-Dominion final in Perth and landed at the Burrumnbeet property of trainer Ashleigh Herbertson, where under the supervision of Purdon stable foreman the warhorse – how else could you describe the tough-as-nails pacer – Shaun McNaulty

set about again leaving his mark on Victoria.

A regular visitor to Australian since 2012, Smolda had in the summer of 2016 taken out the Ballarat Pacing Cup, finished second in the Victoria Cup and won the AG Hunter Cup.

Coming off the back of a South Australian Cup victory he produced something special to again capture the biggest race on the Ballarat and District Trotting Club calendar.

While on this occasion he was not able to extend the winning run in the Victoria and Hunter Cups, he had done the job across three states in consecutive outings to earn legendary status.

Smolda’s named will be forever etched in a special place in BDTC history.