WINDSOR, ON — For a decade and a half Steve Condren and Bob McIntosh have cultivated a mutually beneficial relationship that has resulted in more trips to the winner’s circle than you could easily count. Sunday evening at Windsor Raceway the pair will be looking to add another page to their success story with two-year-old pacing colts Im A Lucky Cam and Cam Lucky.
The colts are competing in Gold Elimination action, with Im A Lucky Cam making his second start against the top Ontario-sired horses and Cam Lucky moving up from the Grassroots for the first time. Condren says both colts are true competitors and with an ounce of racing luck could earn a spot in next weekend’s $130,000 Gold Final.
“They are both pretty decent colts. They both want to go forward,” says the veteran reinsman, who has piloted the winners of more than $82 million. “I’ve only sat behind Cam Lucky once or twice, but the time I drove him down at Flamboro (Oct. 5) he had a bad position and he raced really good,so with some racing luck he might be a player.”
Cam Lucky will start from Post 7 in the last of the three Gold Eliminations, but Condren is not concerned about starting near the outside in the eight-horse field.
“I don’t think there’s much of a bias at Windsor,” he notes. “It’s been a good old racetrack over the years.”
La Salle resident McIntosh bred Cam Lucky and shares ownership on the son of Camluck and $241,837 winner Lingerie with Al McIntosh Holdings Inc. of Leamington and Michael Kohler of Sterling Heights, MI. Among the horses the former Grassroots winner will face in Race 11 is two-time Gold Elimination winner Apache Limo from Post 4, one of four entries from the Bill Robinson stable.
Bob and Al McIntosh also bred and own Im A Lucky Cam, another son of Camluck out of Imthatkindofgirl. A two-time winner in the Grassroots program, Im A Lucky Cam qualified for the Grassroots Semifinal this Friday at Western Fair Raceway, but the McIntosh cousins opted for a second stab at the Gold colts with an eye to earning enough points to compete in the Nov. 8 Super Final at Mohawk Racetrack.
“He’s been getting better every week,” says Condren. “He developed around the bull rings in the Grassroots and then stepped up a notch and raced good in the last Gold Final so Bob figured he’d give him another shot in the Gold.”
After scoring his back-to-back victories in the Grassroots Series, Im A Lucky Cam finished third in the Sept. 22 Elimination and Sept. 29 Gold Final at Mohawk Racetrack, earning 24 Super Final points. He then captured a Flamboro Breeders Stake on Oct. 5 and heads into Sunday’s battle off an Oct. 17 qualifier at Mohawk.
“He was in against some pretty nice horses so I just kept him in his element,” says Condren of the qualifier. “I just wanted to finish with him on the bit.”
Condren will send Im A Lucky Cam after a top three finish from Post 5 in the ninth race on Windsor Raceway’s Sunday evening program, which gets under way at 6:30 pm. The top three finishers from each elimination will earn a return invitation to the Nov. 2 Gold Final at the five-eighths mile oval.