Good horses are hard to come by. Just ask any horseperson. But when the best you've developed is a horse that still has untapped potential, it's virtually impossible to let them go.

Such is the case with West River Jet. The product of Nova Scotia's Clare & Ken MacDonald, West River Jet posted a 7-2-2 summary from 11 starts as a sophomore in 2025. He capped his three-year-old with a 15-length romp in the 2025 Maritime Breeders Final, winning in 1:58.2.

He is, the words of Clare MacDonald, the best trotter her stable has developed to this point. And so when stakes season concluded, and the inevitable offers came in to purchase her prized pupil, those offers were politely declined by the MacDonalds' daughter, owner Haley MacDonald of Charlottetown, P.E.I.

"He trains alone a lot of the time, just because he's such an aggressive little fella," Clare told Trot Insider in a recent interview. "He doesn't even like to finish second training.

"Plus, he's got such an efficient gait. He doesn't have any wasted momentum, and he trots real clean," MacDonald continued. "We've never had one that could trot [1]:57 as easy as he did, that's for sure."

Now four, West River Jet steps up to face older competition for the first time on Thursday, June 18 in the $5,000 Open Trot at Red Shores Charlottetown. The gelded son of E L Rocket-Kaddys Angel sports a mark of 1:57.1, but faces a field of trotters that broke the 1:55 barrier last time out including new track record holder Flemsteen.

"He's still learning the game," said MacDonald, noting West River Jet's 22 lifetime starts. "In our stakes competitions, sometimes you're only worried about two or three in the field, and you've got five or six that you're going to have to worry about this year. So he's going to have to learn a little different aspect of racing. He's probably going to have to get a lot more covered up trips and stuff to readapt, but I think he'll be able to handle the curve."

The conditions weren't great in his first appearance of 2026, but West River Jet still created a buzz when he qualified at Inverness Raceway on May 31 and posted a 44-length score in what seems like a modest 2:03.1. Being a qualifier, the mile time didn't count as a track record but it certainly did best the existing track standard of 2:07.2 set by Dunvegan back in October 1988.

"I don't think we tapped into the bottom of him," noted MacDonald before that qualifying mile. "I think he'll be able to step up another second or so [from his lifetime mark], and that'll put him right in the mix."

(Standardbred Canada)