Driver Mark MacDonald’s admiration of Sportswriter continues to grow. The colt overcame foot trouble to win the $1.5 million North America Cup on June 26 at Mohawk
Racetrack. Last weekend, he overcame heat woes to advance to Saturday’s $1 million Meadowlands Pace.
“He’s a warrior,” MacDonald said. “It seems like we’ve always got something to overcome with this horse. He’s just such a game horse. One of these days, everything is going to come together for this horse. It’s been one thing after another, but he seems to show up for the big dances. That’s the main thing.”
Sportswriter won seven of eight races last year, including the $1 million Metro Pace in a world-record performance, and earned $875,411 on his way to being voted harness racing’s top two-year-old male pacer in both the U.S. and Canada. He has one victory in five starts this year, but it was a big one – the North America Cup.
Trained by Casie Coleman, who is seeking to become the first female trainer to win the Meadowlands Pace, Sportswriter is looking to duplicate Well Said’s North America Cup-Meadowlands Pace double in 2009. Others to win both races are Rocknroll Hanover (2005), Gallo Blue Chip (2000), The Panderosa (1999), Davids Pass (1995), Cams Card Shark (1994), Presidential Ball (1993), and Precious Bunny (1991).
Presidential Ball and Rocknroll Hanover all the only horses to win the Metro Pace at age two and also win both million-dollar races as three-year-olds.
Sportswriter grabbed the final spot in the Meadowlands Pace by being the fastest fourth-place finisher from the three elims last weekend. He was timed in 1:48.1 and finished two lengths behind winner OK Commander, who was clocked in 1:47.4.
He reached the final despite being adversely affected by the heat and suffering muscle cramps two days prior to the eliminations. Saturday’s race at the Meadowlands marked Sportswriter’s first start away from home in Ontario.
“We were hoping he’d just be good enough to overcome it, and he was,” MacDonald said. “He was digging at the wire, which is just insane given the week he had. Considering what could have been … we could have been in the consolations. I’m really happy to be in the final. He’s here now and he’ll be acclimated. He’ll be a hundred percent by Saturday.”
Sportswriter is owned by Steve Calhoun, West Wins Stable and Southwind Farm. Coleman claimed her third Trainer of the Year honour in Canada in 2009, to go with her previous O’Brien Awards in 2005 and 2006. She is making her third appearance in the Meadowlands Pace final, having finished fourth with American Ideal in 2005 and ninth with Art Colony last season.
MacDonald is making his second appearance in the Pace final; he drove Shark Gesture to a fifth-place finish in 2005. He heads into this year’s race full of confidence.
“Those other horses are good, but (Sportswriter) is a special horse; he really is,” MacDonald said. “If he can get lucky and draw good and get in a position where he’s fresh, look out.”
This story courtesy of Harness Racing Communications, a division of the U.S. Trotting Association. For more information, visit www.ustrotting.com.