Two-time O'Brien Award winning driver Mark MacDonald is closing in on a career milestone, and unlike with some of his greatest accomplishments in the past, it looks like the border-hopping reinsman will be celebrating this one stateside.
MacDonald, who relocated from Ontario to New York earlier this year, is just 10 wins away from notching his 5,000th career victory.
“That’s pretty cool," said MacDonald. "It puts you up on a different plateau; it’s a lot of wins and it represents a lot of hard work for me. Any time you can reach a milestone it’s rewarding.”
Most of MacDonald’s wins have come in Canada, where he began driving and training in his early teens.
“When I first started driving I was just hoping to get enough to eat,” he said. “There were some nip and tuck weeks where there just wasn’t a lot of money.”
Things started to improve and he began driving some of the more talented horses from the stable of Hall of Famer Bob McIntosh at age 19.
“That’s something you don’t really think about,” he said. “But when you get close to [5,000] you start to reflect back.”
Of all his highlights, MacDonald lists a one-hour span in 2010 as his favourite. That’s when he won the Pepsi North America Cup with Sportswriter and the Fan Hanover with Western Silk. Both were for trainer Casie Coleman.
“I won [races worth] $2.1 million in purses in almost 40 minutes,” MacDonald said with a laugh. “Not too many people get a chance to do that.”
MacDonald is looking forward to Saturday, when he will be driving talented three-year-old colt pacer Bolt The Duer in the $300,000 Max C. Hempt Memorial at Mohegan Sun at Pocono Downs.
“Bolt The Duer is a nice horse,” MacDonald said. “He’s a very professional horse on the racetrack. He’s very well mannered.
“He’s very versatile. You can race him three different trips in three different races," he added. "Sometimes you get a real fast horse, but they’re erratic. He’s not.”
Bolt The Duer won his elimination last weekend by two and a half lengths over Allstar Legend in 1:48.3 for trainer Peter Foley.
John McDermott trainee Hurrikane Kingcole posted a seven and three-quarter length win in his own elimination over I Like Dreamin in 1:48.1 – a time that equalled Custard The Dragon’s world record for three-year-old male pacers on a five-eighths mile oval.
“I was expecting him to be big,” McDermott said. “He’s a very special horse. I said at the beginning of this year when I trained him at the Meadowlands in [1]:51 that this will be the fastest horse that ever lived. He’s got all the ability. When his brain is working he’s scary good. His speed is just ridiculous.”
The other elimination winner was the Sam DePinto-trained I Fought Dalaw, who prevailed by one and three-quarter lengths over One Through Ten in 1:49.3.
"I was very happy with his elim,” said DePinto. “He seemed to go comfortably in the mile; well within himself. I’m very pleased with the way he raced heading into [Saturday’s] race.”
Saturday's mega-card main events at Pocono also include the $500,000 Ben Franklin and $250,000 James Lynch Memorial.
(With files from HRC)