Blake MacIntosh’s solid 2017 season isn’t going unnoticed. The resident of Cambridge, Ont. is currently sporting a training average slightly under .300 and his charges are racing well. He has pointed out that his lesser-priced horses have been delivering, which has provided his stable with quite a boost.

"Last fall, we spent some more money on horses than we have in the past, but so far it is the lesser-priced horses that have been putting up the numbers," MacIntosh recently told The Hamilton Spectator.

Heading into the Sunday, August 6 programs of live racing, MacIntosh’s stable has sent out 232 starters. His pupils have made trips to the winner’s circle after 40 of those dashes, and have also posted 32 second-place finishes and 27 thirds. His training average currently sits at .287 and his stable has raced to over $617,000 in purse earnings.

According to MacIntosh, his stable will continue its upward trajectory if some of his top guns can find some racing luck out on the track. "I hope that as the season goes on, the Ontario Sired ones, which were the more expensive ones, will start doing their part," he said.

One of his Ontario Sired horses that appears to have turned a corner recently is Sports Column, last year’s Battle of Waterloo winner who has had a bit of a tough year to date. The speedy son of Sportswriter has just one win after eight starts this year, but he won an Ontario Sires Stakes Gold dash convincingly off a qualifier a few weeks back, and followed that up with a strong closing mile over Mohawk Racetrack.

After Sports Column’s OSS win, MacIntosh said, "I had not been happy with him up until now, but it looks like he is sorted out. He won his last OSS Gold event and looked like what we had hoped for."

The trainer is surely happy with his three-year-old American Ideal filly Clear Idea, though. The $30,000 yearling purchase has been dynamite thus far in her sophomore campaign. She has won seven of her 13 seasonal starts and has missed the board just once. The bay is currently riding a five-race win streak (Update: Clear Idea extended her unbeaten streak to six on Sunday, August 6. To read more, click here).

Another MacIntosh pupil that has jumped up to be noticed is the two-year-old Art Major colt Courtly Choice, who equalled the Saratoga Casino Hotel track record (1:53.1) last week while racing at odds of 17-1.

"We hope it keeps going along like it has,” MacIntosh told The Hamilton Spectator. “Not every horse is coming through, but a good number have.”

Courtly Choice, pictured victorious on Wednesday, August 3, 2017 during NYSS action at Saratoga Casino Hotel (Photo courtesy Saratoga Casino Hotel)

MacIntosh surely hopes that a pair of his two-year-old pacing fillies can put forth a good showing of themselves on Monday (August 7). Ashlees Sport (PP2, Chris Christoforou, 10-1) and Rendezvous Hanover (PP8, James MacDonald, 12-1) are both set to contest the $139,250 Battle of the Belles, part of Grand River Raceway’s annual Industry Day program.

Grand River’s Industry Day card will kick off with a 1:30 p.m. first-race post time. For complete information on Industry Day 2017, click here.

To view the harness racing entries for Monday at Grand River, click the following link: Monday Entries – Grand River Raceway.

(With files from The Hamilton Spectator)