"She just does it all on her own.... You don't have to worry about if she's going to go on a run or anything on the first turn because she can trot the turn so well. She's kind of like driving a big stock car."
By all counts, Power And Grace lives up to her name week in and week out, knocking heads with the top trotters on Ontario's Signature circuit and compiling impressive statistics in doing so. In fact, since the beginning of 2020, she has won 12 of 38 starts and earned minor placings on 14 other occasions, picking up $95,000 in that span.
Perhaps the six-year-old Holiday Road mare performed most truly to her name on March 24, when she etched her name into the record book at The Raceway at the Western Fair District with a 1:57.1 win — the fastest ever by an older trotting mare at the London, Ont., facility — in the $13,000 Preferred 2 Handicap for trainer Ron MacDonald and the partnership of Hartel Maintenance Inc. and Lormer McClure.
"I figured that she could always go fast — and the track's been wicked in London," driver Brett MacDonald said in a recent episode of COSA TV. "I figured they'd go a pretty good mile over it the way the track's been, and the way she's been racing. Usually, when she's covered up for a couple starts, she'll go a really big mile on the front, and it just happened to be that night."
The tight turns at Western Fair pose an obstacle to many a trotter, but Power And Grace's handiness through them has proven a welcome asset. Still, the London track configuration doesn't lend itself to sustained speed, making her accomplishment all the more impressive.
"I didn't really know, when she got to the half in :58 and then three-quarters in 1:27, I didn't know how much she'd get home because those are big fractions over London, especially for that class," MacDonald said. "I didn't really know what the track record was for trotting mares, and then she won in 1:57 and (commentator) Sugar (Doyle) said she beat the track record. I was really surprised that's what the track record was."
After that performance, MacDonald feels Power And Grace, who took her career mark of 1:55.1 on Feb. 8 while wintering on the southern coast of Lake Erie at MGM Northfield Park, is capable of even more dazzling miles as warmer weather approaches.
"I think, when the weather gets a little bit better, she's going to be able to go faster over London," he said. "She trots the turns so well that the turns don't really bother her so much. Some horses go faster over Flamboro because the turns might be a little bigger, but the turns don't seem to bother her.... She never does anything wrong, either. She's just great to have around, great to do anything with. She tries week in, week out."
The entire COSA TV interview appears below.