Very little separates track record holder Google Me from main rival Simsfield Hardtimes in the battle for the coveted blanket and bragging rights among the fastest division that will be determined during New Year’s Day harness racing at Vesey Street.The two rival ponies are level on combined average time heading into the final two heats in the aged pony stakes with Google Me, jointly owned by the father and son pair Robert and Tyler Lopes, ahead on a tie-break, having achieved the faster time of 1:02/1 in the opening heat of the series on Boxing Day.“It is still anybody’s race,” Aaron Sims, who trains Simsfield Hardtimes, said. “It looks like it’s going to be a good hook with Google Me and Hardtimes and anything can happen.”Lopes declined to comment.Lopes’s mare and Simsfield Stables’ gelding have both lived up to expectations so far in the aged pony stakes having established themselves as the two fastest ponies on the local harness scene at the moment after posting the season’s fastest time of 1:01/3 on the same race day on December 14. The 1:01/3 Simsfield Hardtimes posted was one fifth of a second shy of the gelding’s record and two-fifths shy of Google Me’s overall track record, which stands at 1:01/1.With glory at stake, and very little separating the two rival ponies, the pre-race draw to determine track position will be crucial.“It can all come down to the draw,” Sims added. “I could get stuck in the middle again, like I did on Boxing Day, or I can get a rail where I can put down a fast time and hope to improve my average time. We’ll see how that goes.”Sims’s mare, Double Time, sits in third heading into the final two aged pony stakes a second off the lead pace.Somegoldsomewhere, Rockeyed Optimist and Gold N Glory are the leaders in the remaining stakes categories by more than a two-second margin on combined average time.Inwood Stables’ stallion, Somegoldsomewhere, leads the two-year-old stakes, Kelsey Durham’s gelding, Rockeyed Optimist, in the three-year-old stakes and Charles Whited’s gelding, Gold N Glory, in the four-year-old stakes.New Year’s Day harness racing action begins at 1pm.