Murray Brethour had an inkling that Cold Creek Queso would turn out to be something more than ordinary. Just how good the Ontario Sires Stakes graduate will be in 2023 remains to be seen, but the four-year-old progressed from Ontario Sires Stakes Grassroots champ at two to OSS Super Final winner at three with some Grand Circuit possibilities for the upcoming season.

Cold Creek Queso had a modest two-year-old year with just seven starts and only two wins – one in a Grassroots prelim and the other in the $60,000 Grassroots final. He joined the Gold scene in July of his three-year-old year and powered through a campaign that piled $235,052 onto his card to bank $285,064 in his career for owner Cold Creek Standardbreds.

“I knew he was pretty good all along,” Brethour recently told Trot Insider. “But it's just like I say, he was just not up to the two-year-olds. He trained down good, everything was good, but he wasn't going to be in the top five or 10. So that's why we kind of went the other way with him [into the Grassroots].

"I liked him from when I got him. Some Mennonites broke him in and then he brought him to me in February or March. They brought him to me as a two-year-old...As soon as I drove him the first time, I said, ‘This is a nice horse.’ And I was right."

The Betterthancheddar gelding’s development even attracted interest from several buying parties, all of whom were turned down.

“The owners had a couple of inquiries about him, but they're really not sellers, these guys,” said Brethour. “They fall in love with their horses.”

And what's not to love? Cold Creek Queso took a mark of 1:48.3 at Woodbine Mohawk Park last September and was ultra-impressive in his OSS Super Final win. He's clearly endeared himself to Brethour as well.

"He’s pretty tough," admitted the veteran horseman. "He’s a tough bugger, there's no end to him. He could probably go around again if he had to.”

Brethour said he aims to qualify Cold Creek Queso by the end of March to ready for a campaign mostly aimed at four-year-old stakes events, while also giving the gelding ample time to come to form.

“It seems like it takes him a while to get into [form]; to get going,” said Brethour. “Both years he got better the further we went on, I never switched anything. He can go as quick in the cold as he can in the summer.”

Among Cold Creek Queso’s possible stakes engagements are the Graduate Series and the Charles Juravinski Memorial – the latter takes place on a half-mile track. Cold Creek Queso has never raced on a half-mile, but Brethour is not concerned with the pacer's ability on a smaller circuit.

“I trained him in [1:]55 around my half before,” said Brethour. “He’d get around a half no problem. He’s a big horse, but he gets around a half pretty handy, he doesn't interfere. No problems.”

Despite the tumultuous ride a four-year-old has through their transitionary campaign into aged competition, Brethour maintains faith in the horse he suspected was something from the start.

“He should be good but I don't know, you never know with these horses,” said Brethour. “Pretty handy, that's a good thing about him. You can leave or come from the back and he's not real hard to drive. And he doesn’t wear anything [in terms of equipment]. He’s just nice.”