The depth of the aged pacing ranks in 2013 is nothing short of legendary. Need proof? Last year's North America Cup champion returned at four, won a high-profile aged stakes event and then wasn't heard from for the rest of the year.
You could say that Thinking Out Loud quietly disappeared.
The four-year-old son of Ponder was set to race in this year's Canadian Pacing Derby but was scratched from his elimination. Trainer and co-owner Bob McIntosh told Trot Insider that an injury sidelined the millionaire pacer.
"He had a bone bruise, right hind," said McIntosh, stating the injury was detected between the U.S. Pacing Championship and the Canadian Pacing Derby elims.
Limited to just five starts at four, Thinking Out Loud lit up the toteboard on Hambletonian Day by winning the 2013 U.S. Pacing Championship in a lifetime best 1:47.2 at odds of 23-1.
After sitting out the stakes season, McIntosh resumed training Thinking Out Loud last week with plans to qualify in the early Spring.
Boasting wins in one-third of his 33 lifetime starts, homebred Thinking Out Loud is owned by McIntosh along with C S X Stables, Liberty Center, Oh. and Al McIntosh Holdings Inc. of Leamington, Ont.