"You don’t see that very often in a young horse like that. Especially on a track (The Raceway at Western Fair District) that doesn’t have the best footing in the winter. I sure did start paying attention to him then.”

Over his more than four decades in the business, it’s safe to say Bob McIntosh has seen more than his fair share of horses. Second only to Jimmy Takter in the number of Breeders Crown training trophies (16) he possesses, the Windsor, Ontario, resident knows talent when he sees it, so when he says Mach Power has caught his eye, it’s time to sit up and take notice.

“When we brought him in from the field as a yearling, he was tall enough but he needed to put some weight on his bones,” said McIntosh. “Especially some muscle. I’m not sure what happened out there except maybe he got shoved out of the feed tub, but we gave him some time and he came back in with some muscle on him.

“We did not have him ready until late last year, so we just shut him down and waited for this year. He didn’t train down like he was anything special and only did what he had to do. In his second start though he really was eye-catching. He broke behind the gate and spotted the field about seven lengths then came back to win in 2:01.1."

A son of Mach Three and the Camluck mare Power Outrage, Mach Power competes as a homebred for McIntosh, who is the conditioner of record, and Dave Boyle. The colt is the fourth generation of a female family the Hall of Famer has been involved with since the 1980s. He trained, bred and still owns Mach Power’s dam ($54,016), did the same with his granddam Electrical Art ($1,010,568) and trained and owned the great granddam Electrical Express ($318,633).

Mach Power is 4-for-5 in his young career, established his lifetime mark of 1:53.2s in his last win on Feb. 15 and has banked just north of $23,000. He is the third of five foals from his mother and the only one of her progeny that is male. Although he did not initially appear to be a future champion, the colt has all the pedigree in the world to become one.

“Wow, I’m getting old because when we start talking about how long I’ve been around the family it shows how many years I have on me,” McIntosh said. “His dam was kind of a hard luck filly. Then her first foal got caught in a hole in the field and died. This colt certainly has the right blood as his granddam was quite a race mare and his great granddam was too. After seeing him out on the track I bred Power Outage back to Mach Three and hope to get another colt out of it.”

Mach Power debuted on Jan. 25 at Western Fair in a $4,200 non-winners contest. He came home with the victory in 1:59.4 and didn’t exactly knock McIntosh out of his chair with how he paced. It was that next performance on Feb. 1, however, that piqued his interest and was over the same surface as well as in the same class.

Since transitioning to Woodbine Racetrack the colt has only continued to impress McIntosh. On Feb. 8 he climbed up the condition ladder to a $14,000 non-winners engagement and triumphed in 1:55.2 in rein to Randy Waples. His last quarter was a smart :27.1. On Feb. 15, he stepped up in class and won again. It was his swiftest journey yet (1:53.2) and only made McIntosh’s eyes open ever wider.

“I thought we might have a horse on our hands after that start in London,” McIntosh said. “But moving him to Woodbine was a whole different ball game. The competition is a lot deeper there and although the surface is better, this colt gets around very well on a half-mile track. To pace in 1:53.2 in only your fourth start without being asked is excellent. Randy said all he had to do was shake the reins and he took off. He never had to ask him for anything. I think he can easily go in 1:51 quite soon.”

Despite not having much in the way of expectations for Mach Power when he first started, McIntosh is now very excited about how the rest of the year will go.

“I have to say this colt has shocked me and in this game it is spectacular to be shocked in this way,” he said. “Usually it’s the other way around. They train down like they have all the ability in the world and you think they might be a champion. Then reality hits and they never end up doing a thing. This horse has been exactly the opposite and I think he can go with nicer horses."

In-to-go this Thursday at Woodbine, McIntosh will start Mach Power once more before the colt will get a break.

“We are giving him a couple weeks off before his next start and then pointing him to the Youthful Series at Woodbine at the end of next month. There’s another pacing series the month after that up at Mohawk for him and then the sires stakes.

“That is the problem with starting them early because when you have a nice horse you don’t want them beat up when the fall comes around. It depends on him and what kind of breaks he needs as to where I put him the rest of the season, but I wouldn’t rule anything out.

“I’ve already had a lot of offers to buy this horse, but the price hasn’t been right. Besides, why not race him and just see what he’s got? Maybe he’ll become more of a pleasant surprise than he already is.”

(with files from USTA)