After having won three of the fives races during this week's edition of Race Night on The Score, Mark MacDonald had the opportunity to discuss some of his upcoming mounts; the first being Glory's Comet Trotting Series winner Please Poppy, and the second being the
recently-claimed Majortempertantrum.
During the Mohawk Racetrack qualifying session on February 4, MacDonald was up behind Please Poppy, who was putting in his second qualifying effort since having last raced March 9, 2009.
MacDonald and the student of trainer Per Henriksen sat off the tempo in the qualifier and came home with a wallop. The duo got up for a neck victory in a time of 1:58.2 via a very solid :27.2 final quarter-mile.
"He qualified awesome. I qualified him; just took him off the pace," MacDonald told Woodbine Entertainment Group's Chad Rozema. "He trotted home in :27.2, I think, on a cool morning at Mohawk, so he was really good.
"Per has done a great job with him. He had broken a bone in his foot and he's back. He seems to be really good, too. I'm really surprised and really excited with how he's come back."
In terms of the WEG driving colony, MacDonald currently sits second in wins with 45 heading into Woodbine Racetrack's Thursday, February 18 program of racing. Randy Waples leads the pack with 51 victories. Sylvain Filion (40 wins) Rick Zeron (33) and Mario Baillargeon (29) round out the top five.
MacDonald also commented on Majortempertantrum, the five-year-old Art Major mare which he claimed on February 12 along with trainer Tracy Brainard and Andrew Herzog.
"We like her. She scoped a little sick after [she raced]," the two-time O'Brien Award winner explained. "We had to turn her out for a couple of days, but Tracy said that they've been treating her all week to try to clean out her lungs, so I'm hoping that she races really good -- I'm hoping for a good effort."
Majortempertantrum is in to go Thursday at Woodbine in Race 9, which holds an estimated post time of 10:02 p.m. MacDonald and the lass have drawn the outside Post 8 and have been assessed as the 4-1 second choice in the morning line odds.
It was also announced yesterday that on Friday, February 19, MacDonald will be the special guest on Woodbine Racing Live, which will get underway at 6:50 p.m. Fans will also have a chance to ask MacDonald questions via email. Those email submissions can be sent to [email protected].