SMUDGE BROMAC HAS CAREER AFTER RACING

Well-performed Bromac Lodge-bred pacer, Smudge Bromac, is getting the best of care in retirement with Harness Racing Victoria's HERO Program.

Now 13, the Falcon Seelster-Sabrina Bromac gelding earned $460,958, winning 36 races and racking up 50 placings from 209 career starts.

He was trained for much of his career by David Aiken, a long-time client of Peter Clarke's Willowood Equicentre at Murchison.

Willowood, complete with a state-of-the-art water walker (formerly used by champion thoroughbred sprinter Black Caviar), is a caretaker centre for HERO Ambassadors.

Smudge Bromac is now part of the HERO programme, a joint initiative of Harness Racing Victoria and the State Goverment, supplemented by the Victorian Racing Industry Fund.

The programme promotes life after racing for retired standardbreds.

Among other horses to have entered the programme are former NZ Sires Stakes 3YO winner Franco Heir, a winner of 19 races from 83 starts for $392,272 in stakes.

Smudge Bromac appeared as a HERO Ambassador at the Echuca Cup meeting on February 10 last year.

His public appearances have been to promote life after racing, and heighten awareness of Motor Neurone Disease.  

Smudge Bromac retired 100 percent sound and is kept in regular work to maintain his fitness and well-being.