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It's the worst thing a horse owner has to decide to do - put down a lame animal.

For Aaron and Catrina Sims, that nightmare became a reality this week.

Bermuda record holder Speed Time has been put down after breaking a leg in Sunday's Champion of Champions race.

David Burrows' Showstopper was also put down for a similar incident from Saturday's racing.

Owner Aaron Sims has renewed calls for the Driving Horse and Pony Club to get a proper track so accidents like this happen far less often.

"I was going for the triple crown again, which we won last year on Speed Time, Sims said. We won both the stakes races and Champion of Champions would have given us the triple crown, but this happened."

Sims wife Catrina was racing Speed Time when the accident happened.

"He warmed up fine and he came out of the gate and went into the first turn but then Catrina felt something and she pulled the horse down. When she finally got him to stop, he still wanted to keep on going because that's what he loved to do. He was limping so we rushed him out of there and had him x-rayed, but the bone in his leg was broken."

Sims lamented that "this just shows how unforgiving our track is. We have top quality horses here in Bermuda and we are doing top quality speeds."

Sims had Speed Time put down on Monday.

"He was an exceptional horse. I will never - and never is a big word - but I will probably never in my lifetime ever own a horse who was exceptional like him. Catrina would say the same thing that she will never drive a horse like him. He was a freak of nature. He loved to race and it showed. He would race until his death. I would much rather see him break his leg on the track then see him break it in the paddock doing something else, because at least he died doing something he loved. He loved to race."

He said Speed Time has set track records in the U.S. on a proper quarter-mile length race track.

"It is a proven fact that we need a bigger track. Something needs to be done. If we get a bigger track, then we could set some world records - that's guaranteed."

He said a 5/8ths track causes the horses to be more susceptible to injury.

"Away there are straightaways on a proper quarter-mile track," Sims said. "The corners are banked like on NASCAR track."

He said but not having banked corners because of the oval track causes more strain on the horses' legs.

"You come out of one turn, go down 50 feet and then we get thrown back into a turn. It's just hard on those horses' legs. Speed Time could have stood on a rock; he could have stood on a pothole; he could have twisted the leg wrong in a corner - I don't know and we'll never know."

He said the telling sign was this exact same injury has happened to several horses at the Vesey Street track over the years.

Sims added: "This isn't a common injury on a proper-sized track."

The Driving Horse and Pony Club under former Sports Minister El James were looking at Shelly Bay as one option to help give the sport a regulation-sized track.

Sims said: "That's just one option. Personally, I think the ideal place is to expand is where we are. It's a perfect location, it's just getting permission to expand the track a bit bigger. We're out of sight and out of mind. We're not bothering anybody there. We just need to stretch the track a bit and properly bank the corner."

The Bermuda Equestrian Federation had drawn up plans to expand the Vesey Street facility, but the National Trust had protested because it would encroach on protected land.

"We drew up plans and offered to replace trees, but that's why we were steered to look in a different direction and looked at Shelly Bay because we were getting nowhere with Vesey Street.

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