Very quietly, an eight-year-old pacer set a world record on Canadian soil Wednesday night by erasing a mark set nearly a decade ago.

At Hippodrome 3R, Aarons Mattjesty and driver Denis St. Pierre won a two-mile race in 4:03.4. The previous world record was set at Cal-Expo in California by Carls Future (Lou Pena) in 4:04.2 back in 2006.

“This is great news,” said driver Denis St. Pierre. “I had no idea that we set the world record last night. Aarons Mattjesty is a great horse and worthy of this honour.”

Aarons Mattjesty won by more than seven lengths in his world record performance, rebuffing all challenges.

“He is just such a nice horse,” St. Pierre said of Aarons Mattjesty. “For this kind of race you want to try and soft opening quarters. But the other horse challenged us early and I was lucky to back it down a little after the first fast quarter mile.

“Then by the three-quarter mile,” St. Pierre explained, “Roy came after the lead with Brussebeach and I know I cannot let him get by me so I shake the lines and pull a little on the bit and he (Aarons Mattjesty) took hold as I pulled the (ear) plugs on him. You have to try and not get them too excited early, but after that challenge my horse was so strong, all the way to the finish.”

Trained by Daniel LaFlamme, owned by Francois Morin and bred by Craig Turner, Aarons Mattjesty notched his third straight win and fourth victory in his last five starts. The eight-year-old gelded son of Royal Mattjesty paid $3.30 to win as the betting favourite.

(with files from QJC)