Alex MacDonald earned his first driving wins in nearly four years on Saturday, April 11 at First Tracks Cumberland with back-to-back successful steers on the card capped off by an 11-1 upset with To My Credit in the day's featured $9,722 Winners Over Handicap Trot.

Leaving from pylon position in the top trot, MacDonald sent the six-year-old son of Credit Winner-Dame Edna right out to the lead ensuring that he was in total command of the fractions. And command them he did, as the :28.3 opening panel was followed by a much softer second quarter to the 1:01.1 half.

With the field of top trotters stacked up while heading to that midway marker, 2-1 second choice Brutalizer (Andy Harrington) flushed the cover of 8-5 favourite Big Al M (Zach Vickerson), who in turn caused the emergence of 6-1 shot Jax Spratt (Aaron Hall) first-over heading around the five-eighths bend.

Through the turn, Big Al M was sitting second-over but started losing ground and ultimately went off stride due to a flat tire and was no longer a factor. Brutalizer encountered some traffic trouble with the aforementioned blowout and had significant ground to recover from the back of the pack at the 1:31 third panel with To My Credit continuing to set the pace.

Around the final turn, Jax Spratt tipped three-wide to take his shot at the leader, as Brutalizer followed him closely with plenty of trot and momentum.  Down the stretch, Jax Spratt was neck and neck with the leader, matching strides as the pair approached the wire. But the race belonged to To My Credit and MacDonald as the pair tripped the timer in 2:02.4 to capture the seventh race feature, sparking a $25.60 win payout. Jax Spratt finished a half-length back and Brutalizer was a closing third.

To My Credit is trained by Mr. Allison MacDonald for owner T C B Racing of Scarborough, Maine. The win was the gelding’s 12th lifetime and increased his earnings to $106,500. 

For teamster Alex MacDonald, it was his second win of the afternoon, and the season, having won his previous drive in the fifth race with the Courtney Pitts-trained pacer Stub N Bugs ($12.40) in 2:03.3. Overall, the 41-year-old old reinsman had five starts on the 13-race program and got cheques in four of those events.

Trainer Sara Harrington teamed up with driver Andy Harrington for three winners on the afternoon: trotter Pax Hanover ($9.60) in 2:05 and pacing mares Dreamfair Fantasy ($8.60) in 2:01.2 and Whisper Of Luck ($8.20) in 2:00.3.

Sara Fernald celebrated the first training win of her career with her first starter as four-year-old pacing gelding Eager Beaver closed out the card with a 2:01 triumph in rein to Eric Davis.

Another recent first-time winning Maine trainer, Emily Burgess, followed up her initial victory last Saturday, April 4 with six-year-old pacing mare Mulligan Philly ($4.40) posting back-to-back 1:59.3 miles. Nick Graffam worked out the front-end trip in the day's penultimate race.

(With files from First Tracks Cumberland)