James MacDonald drove five winners on Thursday, Oct. 9 at Woodbine Mohawk Park and took the lead in the national drivers’ win standings.

The reinsman completed his five-win performance by piloting Pure Ivory winner One Belle to a lifetime-best score off a four-week layoff.  He slotted the filly in third before ordering a second-quarter brush, and she glided to the lead before taking on Land The Plane (Jody Jamieson), whom she held off by a head to win in 1:54.1. Sendi Ka (Doug McNair) was third.

The winning Matt Bax-trained filly won her first three career starts before seventh-place finishes in the Peaceful Way and Champlain, which preceded the four-week break. With the victory in the $18,000 conditioned dash, the daughter of Walner-Ms Savannah Belle improved to four-for-six and upped her bankroll to $68,850 for owner-breeder Al Libfeld of Pickering, Ont. The win payoff was $3.40.

MacDonald doubled to start the card, guiding Oneformybaby ($3.10) to a dominant two-move victory in the opener and getting My Ghost ($8.30) up late in the second. The pilot then won the fourth race with All My Wishes ($4.90), who powered first-up to the lead on the turn and produced a :26.4 last quarter to win the $22,000 Pop-Up Series first leg for fillies. He made it a grand slam as Go Rossco ($8.80) drew clear in the last eighth of a mile to score in the fifth.

MacDonald, who entered the card level with Austin Sorrie on the national dash-winning leaderboard, is now ahead by four tallies. He is well clear of Louis-Philippe Roy in the Mohawk standings with 288 wins to Roy’s 214.  MacDonald, Canada’s four-time defending Driver of the Year, has 307 wins and $7.57 million in earnings on the year as he pursues a fourth straight 400-win campaign, and third in a row with eight digits in earnings.

After All My Wishes won the filly split, Out Of Ice ($3.20) captured the $22,000 Pop-Up Series first-leg contest for colts and geldings. Both series are for Ontario-sired three-year-old pacers that have not earned $100,000 or more this season as of Oct. 1, with horses in for a $50,000 tag also eligible.

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

(Standardbred Canada; photo of One Belle and connections on Oct. 9)