by Ken Weingartner, Harness Racing Communications

Freehold. NJ — Arch Madness will have one more chance to add to his win total.

The 4-year-old gelding, coming off a 2-1/2 length, stakes-record 1:52 victory in the Maple Leaf Trot on September 20 at Mohawk Racetrack, will make his final appearance of the season on October 4 in the Allerage at the Red Mile.

New Image Media photo

Arch Madness won the Maple Leaf Trot in a stakes-record time of 1:52.

So far this year, Arch Madness has three wins and five second-place finishes in 10 starts, good for purses of $770,846 — which leads all older trotters. Lifetime, the son of Balanced Image-Armbro Archer has won 13 of 33 races and $1.6 million for trainer Trond Smedshammer, driver Brian Sears and owners Marc Goldberg and Willow Pond (Barry Goldstein).

“He’s been good pretty much all year. I don’t think he raced bad at all,” Smedshammer said. “He had some tougher trips and tough racing luck; the luck of the draw and stuff. There’s not much separating those best horses there. The trip and luck decide it a little bit.

“The races I really tried to have him good for were the Nat Ray and Breeders Crown, and I thought he was tremendous in both of them. He finished second, but he did all the work. He’s doing very good.”

Arch Madness started from post nine in both the Nat Ray and Breeders Crown. He finished second to Misterizi in 1:51 in the Nat Ray and second to Corleone Kosmos in 1:51.4 in the Breeders Crown. His victory in the Maple Leaf snapped a streak of four consecutive runner-up efforts.

Since the addition of trotting hobbles in September 2007, Arch Madness has picked up nine wins and 10 seconds from 22 starts.

He also has grown up.

USTA/Ken Weingartner photo

Arch Madness, with Smedshammer Stable caretaker Maria Kristensen, has banked $770,846 in 2008.

“Body-wise, he’s changed a lot,” Smedshammer said. “He still felt immature to me last year, even when he beat Donato Hanover (in the year-end Breeders Crown). Sometime this spring all of a sudden I could see he was a different horse. He definitely matured a lot physically. It’s not always easy for the 4-year-olds to go into this class. He’s done tremendously.”

Of the top 15 money-earners among older male trotters, only Arch Madness and Before He Cheats, who has made $238,186, are 4-year-olds. Only one of the top 50 money-winning older trotters has made fewer starts than Arch Madness (Misterizi, eight).

“He raced in pretty much everything they have,” Smedshammer said. “I don’t race him in overnights, even if they have four weeks in between. I’ve never done it with any older trotters that are good enough to go in the big races in the past. They only go in the stakes races.

“I don’t see any reason to race week in and week out when you have big races down the road. I like to keep them fresher. They’re going just as (fast) almost in those opens. It’s not like you go in an overnight to get a nice easy race; they go like hell everywhere.”