The Open Book On Mark MacDonald

Previous to the past few weeks, many people in the racing industry would say that they didn't know much about driver Mark MacDonald

. Those that have spent time racing with him have always known him well, but others outside of the loop didn't know what to think. Well, for those that don't know, now is the chance to get to know.

In an interview with the Woodbine Entertainment Group -- conducted just two days after winning the $1.5 million Pepsi North America Cup with Sportswriter and the $666,000 Fan Hanover Stakes with Western Silk -- MacDonald spoke candidly about his frightening racing accident in 2004; his then-record-breaking 2006 campaign; overcoming being burnt out, and since rebounding to be back at the top of his craft.

"I'm still pretty happy. It was a pretty exciting night -- a crazy night," he said, after being asked if the events of Pepsi North America Cup Night at Mohawk Racetrack had sunk in yet. "Everything went right. It was just one of those nights -- my night, I guess."

On paper, and after what all the participants competing in the NA Cup had shown, virtually everyone thought that the $1.5 million classic was going to be a barn burner. With the top three-year-old pacing colts on the planet, and a group of the world's top reinsmen at their lines, handicappers were challenged with trying to figure out how 'Cup' 27 was going to play out. Not many expected to see the horse that went to the lead early be around to contend for the winner's spoils. Enter Sportswriter. Enter Mark MacDonald.

When asked whether he had a preconceived game plan of putting the 2009 Metro Pace and O'Brien Award winner on the lead and playing 'catch me if you can,' MacDonald pretty much said 'yes.'

"Yeah, I did," he said. "You could just see in the race (that) there was no one standout horse. I really thought a horse would be able to steal it on the front end. I thought everyone was going to be looking for a trip, and if I ducked I was worried about excess cover. I didn't want to be fourth or fifth over. I thought I had a really good horse, I was confident in him, and I wanted to put him in the race. The opportunity presented itself for me to put him on the front and control it, and I thought if I could that it would be his race to lose, and it was. He fought hard down the stretch and he won it."

After having steered former World Record holder American Ideal, current World Record holder Sportswriter, and countless other top horses, a person could safely think that maybe one of those top glamour boys would be MacDonald's favourite horse of all time. Well, if you thought that, MacDonald is here to tell you that you are wrong.

"I love Western Silk," he said, of the Fan Hanover Stakes winner, which, like Sportswriter, and American Ideal before him, parades out of the barn of trainer Casie Coleman. "Western Silk is my favourite horse to drive, probably of all time. You know what, I loved American Ideal, but she (Western Silk) is so quick for a piece -- it is amazing how fast she is for a piece. She can absolutely sprint. I wasn't quite sure if she could do it on the front like that -- like she did in the final -- but, boy, if she's got that in her arsenal, too, look out, because she's one hell of a filly."

MacDonald made waves in 2006. As an up and coming driver that had proven that he knew how to bring horses home and had a passion for winning, the two-time O'Brien Award winner as Canada's Driver of the Year set out to re-write the Canadian standardbred racing history books. Setting his sights on the single-season record for dash wins on Canadian soil, MacDonald drove tirelessly throughout the entire campaign. He would go on to win 745 races that year; 741 on Canadian soil, thus breaking the record.

A few years later, MacDonald's record would be soon broken by an equally-determined Jody Jamieson, but something else was broken in the meantime.

"I didn't work hard for a couple of years," MacDonald explained. "I don't know, I just got burnt out. I was tired. I had a really bad head injury in 2004; I had a bad concussion. I had post concussion syndrome for a couple of years. I just never gave myself the chance to get over that, to be honest with you. I don't know, I lost my edge -- I didn't have the eye of the tiger for a couple of years. I love driving horses, I really do -- it's my passion. Some people's (passion) is playing the guitar or golfing, but I love driving horses. I do it every night. I do it twice a day, and I love it, and for a couple of years I didn't know if I wanted to do it anymore."

MacDonald noted that it wasn't just the burn out that resulted in him losing his fire for the game.

"That (the burn out), you know, and I had some problems at home, too, and a lot of things. It was tough -- I just had a tough couple of years. I started to feel like myself again (during) the end of last year. I started working hard in the gym and got a clear head. I told Casie on Saturday. She called me, via text message, and I said 'listen, I haven’t felt like this…I feel like I'm 20 years old. I've got no stress, my mind's clear, I love my job, I feel like a million dollars, my body's perfect.' I said, 'I know we're going to have a good night. I know you have the horses good, and I know I'm going to give them good drives.' That is what I said to her in the afternoon. Obviously I was hoping to win both races -- you never know if you're going to win both races -- but I knew I had good horses, I wanted to get them a good showing of themselves, and I wanted to get some money. We got lots of money."

The ebb and flow of the racing game is undoubtedly going MacDonald's way right now. He's riding the crest of a pair of massive stakes wins and is more than holding his own during the overnights. If observers think he's going to rest on any type of laurel, they are wrong, because MacDonald explained that he's looking to fry some bigger fish.

"I want to be a go-to guy. I want to be a go-to guy in the big races. I'm hoping to have a big summer with Sportswriter. I hoping to win some big races in the States. I'd love to win the Meadowlands Pace. I mean that's a real goal of mine," he said. "But, obviously, (going) back to the [Little Brown Jug] would be great, and then we have Lexington and the Adios. There are some big races out there that I haven't won. I would just like to be in them and win them. I've got a really nice three-year-old. I hope he stays sound and healthy -- and me, too, for the summer -- you never know, maybe I'll have a big year."