MacDonald On Losing Sportswriter Drive: "It Was Heartbreaking"

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Published: June 28, 2010 10:00 am EDT

When asked about what it was like to lose the drive on Sportswriter earlier this year, O'Brien Award winning reinsman Mark MacDonald didn't hold back. One thing that we all know is that ultimate redemption is

oh-so sweet.

“It was heartbreaking. I’m not going to lie to you, it was a tough winter," MacDonald was quoted as saying in an article by The Guelph Mercury. "I got divorced this year then I got that email that they were taking me off the horse. It was like a punch in the stomach.”

MacDonald, twice named Canada's Driver of the Year, took the blow like a true prizefighter, but his much stronger counterpunch came through in a calm, cool and collected approach via his professionalism.

With a new-found dedication to the gym, and rolling with the punches that the racing game threw at him through the opening half of 2010, MacDonald did his job: win races. When the opportunity presented itself, MacDonald found himself back upon Sportswriter, the colt he steered to a standout, O'Brien Award-winning freshman campaign.

If anyone had any doubts on whether MacDonald and Sportswriter should be reunited, those questions were answered this past Saturday at Mohawk Racetrack when the duo threw a 1:48.3 front-end victory at what has been dubbed as a very evenly matched group of three-year-olds. Sportswriter took the $1.5 million event -- the richest pacing event in the world -- by three-quarters of one length, temporarily silencing any of the colt's critics.

2010 NA Cup - Sportswriter - 1:48.3

Reflecting back on when he was taken off Sportswriter, MacDonald conveyed that he reached a crossroads of sorts. He was quoted as saying, "I believe you make your own luck and instead of feeling sorry for myself I got back out there, I started working out in the gym three or four days a week and racing at all the 'B' tracks again. You know what? I guess hard work sometimes does pay off.”

(With files from The Guelph Mercury)

To view the charted results from NA Cup night at Mohawk, click here.

To read the full recap of the NA Cup, click here.

To read the full recap from the NA Cup undercard, click here.

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