Odds On Racing - Harness Racing

Ponder This

June 9, 2005

Perhaps it was fitting that Battle Of Lake Erie entrant Ponder was giving such a name. That’s because for two years, all trainer Bob McIntosh could do was wonder how good the colt might be. Now, at age 4, Ponder might have finally given McIntosh his answer – and it’s the one the trainer envisioned all along.

Sidelined for the better part of two years by a hairline fracture of an ankle, Ponder has returned healthy in 2005 and is putting together a solid season. He has finished no worse than second, winning five times over his last eight starts and earned $201,531 this year after banking a total of just $39,043 in his first two campaigns. He is among eight entered in Saturday night’s $125,000 Battle of Lake Erie at Northfield Park in Ohio.

Last Saturday, Ponder was third-placed-second in the $84,320 Pacing Classic won by Escape The Wind in 1:48.3 at Woodbine. A week earlier, Ponder won the $217,250 Molson Canadian in 1:53 at Western Fair Raceway, tying the track record in the process.

"He came out of the Classic great," McIntosh said. "He’s a tough individual. Driver Jack Moiseyev was very pleased. He had to come first-up a ways, but still went the last quarter-mile in 26.1 and he was still moving at the wire."

Ponder, by The Panderosa out of Empty Feeling, was purchased for $67,000 as a yearling at the Standardbred Horse Sale. He is owned by McIntosh, CSX Stables of Liberty Center, Ohio, and John Fielding of Toronto.

"I bought him as a yearling and as a two-year-old I thought he was the best one I had," McIntosh said. "He had a little hairline crack in a back ankle, which didn’t require surgery, so we stopped with him after one race. It bothered him again at three, so I shut him down and figured we’re going to take our time with him. We never did anything else until he was ready, completely healed. I always thought he was a great horse, and now everyone is getting to see what I was talking about. I just stuck with him."

Two other Pacing Classic participants are heading to Ohio for the Battle of Lake Erie – world-record holder Maltese Artist and Metropolitan. Buckeye One, who was second to Ponder in the Molson Canadian Classic, will join them as well as two-time Northfield Horse of the Year Cambest Prince, Isle of Capri winner He Wants It All, Chewy Gross and Shu Hanover. Cambest Prince has competed in the previous three Battles, finishing second twice (to Royal Mattjesty last year and Peruvian Hanover in 2001).

"It’s a good field," McIntosh said. "Ponder’s a big, strong horse who gets around a half-mile track excellent. He never backs down from a fight. He’s a rough son-of-a-gun to jog and train; he definitely feels like a man. A lot will be determined by the draw. If he draws decent, his chances are as good as anybody’s. You just hold your breath until the draw."