When spending less than $50,000 for a pair of yearling trotters you don't list on your whiteboard "start in the Mohawk Million" as a goal. However, that is exactly where co-owner and trainer Blake Macintosh finds himself on Saturday with Go Ahead Makemyday and Monalishi in the richest race for 2-year-old trotters on the stakes calendar. "We don't buy expensive horses so you never expect it. I think one was $17,000 and one was $28,000. You just hope you get nice horses," said Macintosh. "It has worked out great and everything has gone perfect so far. You just hope it keeps going that way." As a "pay to play" event with a $50,000 price tag, Macintosh and his ownership group didn't own slots for the C$1,000,000 Mohawk Million. What he was able to do is work out deals to get his horses into the race. "We made a deal with Diamond Creek for the slot that the Walner colt is in [Go Ahead Makemyday] and purchased Brad Grant's slot for Monalishi," said Macintosh. Monalishi, one of three fillies in the field, brings the slightly stronger résumé into the Mohawk Million. She won the C$390,000 Peaceful Way over this track on August 24 and has won five of seven starts in her initial year on the track. Last time out she set slow fractions on the lead and just out-sprinted fellow Million starter Lasting Dream with a 27 1/5 final quarter. "She is not a good horse on the front. She is better chasing horses. Even training down she was terrible on the front. Her game is chasing horses," said Macintosh. "[Driver] James [MacDonald] tried to get Louie [Roy] to come around and he wouldn't, so it wound up being a sprint coming home. She has a lot of heart and wants to win." Monalishi is from the first crop of Green Manalishi in Canada and has really opened the eyes of Macintosh. "We have three of them this year and they all made the races and have been competitive. They are a good breed. I think he's the next good sire and will really help the Ontario breed." Go Ahead Makemyday owns a decent record of his own with three wins in seven tries. Most recently he was second behind fellow Million competitor Onajetplane (post five, Andrew McCarthy) in the $250,000 New Jersey Classic final at the Meadowlands. It was a bit of a "trouble" line as he was trapped in the pocket as the winner got momentum on the outside. ► Sign up for our FREE DRF Harness Digest Newsletter "I don't want to say it cost him the win but he would've been a lot closer. I'm not going to take anything away from the other horse; he raced great," said Macintosh. "He's a grinder and doesn't have a big turn of foot but he would've battled him a lot harder if he got out sooner." As the gray Go Ahead Makemyday only owns a 1:54 4/5 lifetime mark compared to 1:52 2/5 for Monalishi, it would be easy to say he's not as good as her, but Macintosh isn't ready to put one above the other. "I think she has more pure speed but I think the gray colt will improve and keep going," said the trainer, who will watch Go Ahead Makemyday start from post three with David Miller and Monalishi just to his outside with MacDonald in the bike. The Million drew a strong field with a number of stakes winners in the 10-horse lineup. Maryland (post two, Dexter Dunn) won the C$575,000 William Wellwood Memorial over this track and followed it up with a victory in the $390,000 Peter Haughton Memorial last week at Harrah's Hoosier Park. He is one of two starters for trainer Marcus Melander, who also has Pennsylvania Sire Stakes champion Meshuggah starting from post seven with Scott Zeron in the bike. Trainer Luc Blais sends four to post for his owner Determination. They include Champlain winner Emoticon Legacy (post one, Roy), Lasting Dream (post six, Bob McClure), Wondrous Blue Chip (post eight, Tyler Jones), and Lookatmegoamigo (post nine, Jody Jamieson). Rounding out the field from post 10 is Kentucky Sire Stakes runner-up Torrisi with Yannick Gingras in the bike. "Dexter's horse Maryland. He looks like the best, but Luc's got two really nice horses in there too," said Macintosh when asked which were the horses to beat. "Any horse can win this race. Nobody put up $50,000 or whatever they put up not thinking they had a shot. It will all come down to the trip they get and what happens out there." The Mohawk Million is race 10 on a power-packed 13-race program at Woodbine Mohawk Park on Saturday. It shares the purse spotlight with the C$1,000,000 Metro Pace for 2-year-olds, while the undercard includes the C$713,000 Canadian Trotting Classic, C$532,000 She's A Great Lady, and C$347,000 Elegantimage. Post time for the card, which offers a pair of $100,000 guaranteed Pick 5 pools in races one and six, is 6:30 P.M. (EDT).