Its A Good Thing heads into Tuesday’s Gold elimination at Grand River Raceway with an impressive record of seven wins and three seconds in 12 starts this season, but the date of the three-year-old pacing colt’s last start was May 8

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Sidelined by health issues in the spring, the Bob McIntosh trainee returns to action on Tuesday off an impressive qualifying effort at Mohawk Racetrack on August 14. Sitting off the pace for most of the race, Its A Good Thing and driver Randy Waples blazed home in :27.2 to finish three-quarters of a length behind the winner in 1:52.3.

“He was well within himself in the qualifier. Randy was very impressed with him,” says McIntosh. “I was going to start him in the Grassroots, but Randy talked me into going to Grand River.”

A third generation product of McIntosh’s breeding program, Its A Good Thing is the son of former McIntosh trainees Western Maverick and Sammartha Stewart. The Windsor resident shares ownership on the pacer with Dwight Stacey of Mitchell and Michael Kohler of Grosse Point, Michigan.

Its A Good Thing made four appearances on the racing scene as a two-year-old, logging one second-place finish, enjoyed a six month hiatus, then made his sophomore debut in late January. The colt quickly racked up four straight victories, two at Windsor Raceway and two at Woodbine Racetrack, before finishing second in the first leg of the Apaches Fame Series at Woodbine. He came back in the second leg to post a personal best 1:52.2 victory and then finished third in the March 27 final.

The colt extended his impressive record with a win in a leg of the Youthful Series at Woodbine and a third in the final, then ran into trouble in the Ontario Spring Series where he made an early break in the first leg. In spite of interference in the May 8 final that caused him to go off-stride at the halfway marker, Its A Good Thing recovered to finish second. McIntosh entered the youngster in the Upper Canada Cup eliminations at Georgian Downs, but was forced to scratch prior to the May 16 event.

“He has tremendous ability, it was just a matter of getting the kinks out,” notes McIntosh. “We’ve had a chiropractor do some work on him and it seems to have helped him a lot.”

Waples will steer Its A Good Thing from Post 5 in the first $40,000 Gold elimination at Grand River Raceway on Tuesday, and McIntosh is hoping for a strong showing from the colt in his 2009 Ontario Sires Stakes debut.

“With a little bit of luck this week we’ll get to come back and race him in the final,” says the Hall of Fame horseman. “If he’s on his game, he’ll make the final. He really wants to get the job done. He’s a very competitive horse.”

Among the colts Waples and Its A Good Thing will face in Tuesday’s first race is three-time Gold elimination winner Primary Purpose, who will start from Post 6. Waples will also steer Canadian Breeders champion Lyons Horace in the second elimination, and may be faced with a difficult decision heading into next week’s $130,000 Gold final if both colts perform well over the Elora oval on Tuesday.

The top four finishers from each elimination will return to Grand River on September 1 for the fourth $130,000 Gold final of the sophomore campaign. Post time for this Tuesday’s showdown is 7:02 p.m., with the three-year-old pacing colts waging their high speed battles in Races 1 and 2.

To view Tuesday's harness racing entries, click here.

(OSS)