After a break of more than three months, multiple O'Brien Award-winning driver Mark MacDonald will make his 2019 debut in pari-mutuel action on Friday (February 22).
The PEI native, who dominated in Canada before setting up shop in New York in 2012, made a quiet return during the qualifiers at Yonkers Raceway last Friday (Feb. 15) but returns in earnest with nine drives on Friday night's 12-race program. His last drive in a race came on November 10, 2018. With his batteries now fully charged, MacDonald is looking forward to his return to the racebike.
"I just took some personal time," MacDonald told Trot Insider, "Yonkers takes a break in December and I tried to time my return at the same time as when [trainer] Gilbert-Garcia Herrera returns as he shuts his barn down for a few months."
After a career high 4,200-plus starts in 2005, MacDonald has geared down but maintains solid production numbers. His 2018 season marked 20 straight campaigns with more than $1 million in purse earnings and 21st with more than 100 wins.
"I was just relaxing; I went to La Jolla, California for a month to surf and play golf, mostly surf though," MacDonald said with a laugh, "and started to get into shape and back ready for end of February."
In 2018, MacDonald continued to find success both in New York and on the Grand Circuit with horse the likes of Sunfire Blue Chip, winner of the Bobby Quillen Invitational at Harrington Raceway.
MacDonald boasts 6,165 wins and more than $97 million in career purses from a career that started roughly 25 years ago with a horse named Jim Bob Skipper. He's since captured many of harness racing's most prestigious events, including the Little Brown Jug (Mr Feelgood, 2006), the North America Cup (Sportswriter, 2010) and three Breeders Crown titles (Moving Pictures, 2007; Betterthancheddar, 2011; Pure Country, 2017) and a pair of O'Brien Awards as Canada's leading driver in 2005 and 2006.