Bob McIntosh, a member of Canada's Horse Racing Hall of Fame, purchased only two yearlings for himself at the 2010 Lexington Select Yearling Sale, a pacing colt and a pacing filly. Both will go to post Saturday at Mohawk
Racetrack.
D Terminata will showcase his talent in the $1 million Metro Pace and Shelliscape will take on top rate fillies in the $633,000 final of the Shes A Great Lady Stakes.
Bringing yearlings to the races is not an easy task, but McIntosh is always up for the challenge. The conditioner is known for being able to develop young horses successfully.
“When you develop them from young horses it is a lot more satisfying than getting a proven product,” he explained. “It’s still nice to get a good horse in your stable already developed. It’s just extra satisfaction when you bring them from Day One where you actually break the colt and start with him and bring him along, like kids through school.”
The veteran trainer has developed many champions like Artiscape ($1,469,461), Nebupanezzar ($1,090,930), Camluck ($1,003,260) and Text Me ($931,853) just to name a few. All four have brought home an O’Brian Award.
What’s his secret?
“I am pretty old school,” said McIntosh. “I put a lot of foundation miles into them. We take our time and have lots of patience with them when they are young.”
McIntosh doesn’t take all the credit. He admits having a right driver is key. He feels he has found that in Randy Waples.
“Randy does a tremendous job with the colts in the spring,” he said. “You have to get a good driver. Once you’ve put the all work into them it’s kind of in the driver’s hands. You have to have a driver that has a good head on his shoulders who will protect your horse a little bit.”
But in the beginning, McIntosh’s Metro starter, D Terminata, tested his patience.
“With the colt, we could have easily given up on him, but we just kept plugging away and he came around,” he said. “He wasn’t impressive early on, actually. He was kind of tough to get gaited and had a mind of his own.”
After gelding him, the resident of Windsor, Ont. noticed a difference in his attitude.
“From that moment forward he seemed to get better,” McIntosh said. “His attitude got better and he developed into having a great gait, but going slow he still looks horrible, but once he reaches speed he’s got a beautiful gait.”
The freshman son of Rocknroll Hanover--Determination Plus has exceeded McIntosh’s expectations so far. D Terminata has two wins and four second-place finishes in seven starts and $65,147 in earnings for McIntosh who also owns a piece of the gelding with CSX Stables and DM Stables LLC.
Although he won’t say D Terminata is the best of the Metro bunch, he does believe he is a pretty nice colt to make it to that level. After D Terminata’s winning effort in his $40,000 elimination, the three-time O’Brien Award winning trainer likes they way his bay is going into the rich final.
“Randy gave him a good drive and nobody came at him, they left him alone on the front end,” McIntosh explained. “He was able to just brush home on the end of it, coming home in 26 (seconds) and a bit. It’s better than getting a real tough trip and going to the bottom on him. He just really raced for a quarter of a mile, but he showed a lot of good fight because he had some nice colts sitting on his back and he fought them off.”
If D Terminata is victorious this Saturday, McIntosh will bring home his first Metro Pace trophy.
“It would be great, especially when I own part of the colt myself, too. It will be a little better Christmas that’s for sure,” he laughed. “It would be nice to win that race. Over the years I think we’ve had a few seconds, but never a win. The draw hasn’t been lucky for me to win.”
But by winning his elimination, McIntosh and Waples were able to select their post positions for the final. D Terminata will leave from Post 4 in the eighth race.
Shelliscape, who is McIntosh’s other Lexington purchase, finished third in her $35,000 Shes A Great Lady elimination and has drawn Post 7 for the rich final, which is slated for Race 7.
“I would have rather been a couple of spots closer in, but I can live with Post 7,” he said. “She is competitive with that bunch of fillies.”
In seven starts, the daughter of Artiscape--Shell I Scoot has found the winner’s circle five times with two third-place finishes while earning $80,543. The two-year-old filly is owned by the same connections as D Terminata.
McIntosh may not be so lucky when it comes to post position draws, but he still does have his fair share of lucky horseshoes.
D Terminta was a $36,000 yearling purchase whereas Shelliscape went for $25,000. They also happened to be only nine horses apart at the sale.
“In not going to say I’ll never repeat that again, but that’s probably a once in a lifetime deal,” he said. “It was just one of those lucky deals. There is a lot of luck involved when you’re buying yearlings, too. You have to put your hand up at the right time.”
Also on Saturday, the $832,000 Canadian Pacing Derby is slated for the 10th race.
All three races will be televised live on The Score, in a special two-hour program from 9:00 p.m. - 11:00 p.m. ET, with post time for the Metro scheduled for 9:57 p.m.
To view Mohawk Racetrack's Saturday entries, click the following link: Saturday - Mohawk Racetrack.
(WEG)