James MacDonald, Canada’s four-time defending Driver of the Year, celebrated career win 4,000 on Friday, Feb. 28 at Woodbine Mohawk Park.

The Guelph, Ont. resident entered the evening just one win shy of the 4,000-win mark.

MacDonald reached the milestone early by winning the evening’s second race, an $11,000 fillies and mares conditioned pace, with the late-closing Firstofanera ($11.10) in 1:57.2 over the 'good' track for trainer Carmen Auciello and owner Ryan Bender of Cookstown, Ont. 

The 4,000-win milestone is part of a tremendous run of success for MacDonald over the last several seasons. MacDonald was recently named the Keith Waples Driver of the Year at the O’Brien Awards for the fourth straight year. His incredible 2024 season included horses he drove earning more than $12 million, the most in a single season by a Canadian-based driver, and notable victories in the Meadowlands Pace and two Breeders Crowns.

It took MacDonald only 861 days to go from 3,000 career wins to 4,000.

MacDonald earned three more wins during the 11-race card with three-year-old fillies owned by the TheStable.ca groups, Oh Hill No ($5.80) and Foxy Seaside ($2.70), trained by Dominic Gladu, and Rosetta ($8.70) from the Harry Poulton barn.

After winning four straight Woodbine driving titles, MacDonald is off to another great start in 2025 with 49 wins at the Campbellville, Ont. oval, 15 more than his nearest competitor in the standings.

In other Friday night action, 1-5 favourite Boots and driver Louis-Philippe Roy completed a sweep of a Pop-Up Series, dominating his rivals in the $20,000 final with a career-best 1:54.2 mile. Why Wouldnt Ya was the runner-up for the third straight week in the series with MacDonald aboard while Robby Love Dat and Phil Hudon completed the top three.

The four-year-old Upfront Hannahsboy-L Dees Rosemel gelding, who joined the Ben Hollingsworth stable heading into the series, is owned by A Bianco Holdings Limited of Woodbridge, Ont.

This Pop-Up event was for non-winners of $25,000 or pacers not averaging $1,500 per start in a minimum of 10 starts in 2024-2025. 

Live harness racing continues on Saturday evening at Mohawk. Post time is 6:30 p.m.

To view Friday's harness racing results, click the following link: Friday Results - Woodbine Mohawk Park.

(Woodbine & Standardbred Canada)