Mark MacDonald, winner of over 5,000 races, will be driving at The Meadowlands on Friday nights through the end of The Championship Meet. MacDonald is hoping this will be a launching point to him becoming a Meadowlands mainstay going forward.
“I want to start driving there on Friday nights. It’s tough to jump into any place in the middle of a meet, let alone The Meadowlands, but I want to start with Fridays and I think when The Meadowlands opens up again in the fall I will go there fulltime.”
The Meadowlands recently announced a purse increase, but that was not the driving force behind MacDonald’s decision.
“The Meadowlands will give me more exposure compared to what I am doing now," said MacDonald. "In addition the better stakes horses, especially the younger ones come through The Meadowlands. I don’t want to just drive overnight horses all year. I look forward to getting some drives in big stakes races and in order to do that, I need to drive at The Meadowlands.”
MacDonald is committed to driving as many horses as he can going forward. “I’ll be at qualifiers driving all the horses that I can. Hopefully I will pick up more and more work as the meet goes on.” So far MacDonald is off to a good start as he is 1-for-1 with the mare he co-owns, Up Front Elizabeth.
General Manager Jason Settlemoir is thrilled about MacDonald’s addition to the driving colony.
“I am very pleased to have Mark driving with us going forward, not only for his on the track ability but because he understands this business and conducts himself in a professional manner off the track,” said Settlemoir. “He is a great addition to a driving colony that is filled with youth, energy and talent.”
(Meadowlands)