Driver Bio

Mark
 MacDonald
Born: 12/9/1978 in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island
Resides: Cambridge, Ontario
Colors: Blue-Yellow-White
Statistics
Woodbine Mohawk Stakes Wins
SERIES HORSE (YEAR)
Armbro Flight

Action Broadway (2011)

Falls For You (2008)

Breeders Crown

Betterthancheddar (2011)

Moving Pictures (2007)

Burlington Mr Feelgood (2006)
Canadian Breeders Championship

Domitian Hanover (2007)

Guilford (2007)

Champlain (Pace)

Idyllic (2010)

Pretty Katherine (2010)

Sportswriter (2009)

Southwind Rio (2006)

Laughing Art (2006)

Damsel

Apple Delight (2008)

Outlawed Beauty (2006)

Dream Maker Automatic Slims (2008)
Eternal Camnation

Idyllic (2010)

Mater Deo (2010)

Pretty Katherine (2010)

Fan Hanover Stakes Western Silk (2010)
Glorys Comet Please Poppy (2009)
Lifetime Dream The Great Pacific (2006)
Metro Pace Sportswriter (2009)
Milton Stakes Moving Pictures (2007)
Miss Vera Bars Bouncing Hanover (2007)
Nassagaweya Stakes Sportswriter (2009)
Ontario Boys Series Blue Burner (2006)
Ontario Sires Autumn Series

Lookin For A Fight (2009)

Machs Rocket (2006)

Ontario Sires Spring Series Has An Attitude (2008)
Ontario Sires Stakes Gold Finals

Modern Connetion (2010,2YOFO)

Western Silk (2010, 3YOFP)

Western Silk (2010, 3YOFP)

Ontario Sires Stakes Grassroots Tilly Seelster (2011, 3YOFP)
Ontario Sires Stakes Super Finals

Mach Dreamer (2010, 3YOCP)

Modern Connection (2010, 2YOFP)

Western Silk (2010, 3YOFP)

Western Silk (2009, 2YOFP)

Chancey Lady (2007. 2YOFP)

Pepsi North America Cup Sportswriter (2010)
Princess Series Ultimate Bet (2006)
Roses Are Red Moving Pictures (2007)
S.B.O.A. (Pace)

Western Silk (2010)

Moving Pictures (2006)

Simcoe (Pace)

Kyle Major (2010)

Shacked Up (2009)

West Side Glory (2006)

Theredandpanlines (2005)

Spring Pacing Championships Tigerama (2008)
Summertime Mr Feelgood (2006)
The Count B American Ideal (2005)
Town Pro Unique Legacy (2008)
Valedictory

Lucky Terror (2010)

Clowns Smile (2007)

Whenuwishuponastar

Beachy Girl (2007)

Southwind Rio (2006)

Youthful Oscar Oscar (2009)
WDB/MOH Driving Record

Career Wins

4,928 Wins (through December 31, 2011)

2011 Driving Record

STARTS 1ST 2ND 3RD EARNINGS UDRS
1,037 110 103 100 $2,702,333 0.193

 

2011 WEG Driving Record

STARTS 1ST 2ND 3RD EARNINGS UDRS
936 98 94 88 $2,374,678 0.192

 

2011 WEG Stakes Wins

SERIES HORSE
Armbro Flight Action Broadway
Breeders Crown Betterthancheddar
Ontario Sires Stakes Grassroots Tilly Seelster (3YOFP)
Career
  • In February 2012, MacDonald decided to give driving in the U.S. a go. 
  • After several drivers were stranded in New Jersey due to a snowstorm and they were unable to fulfill their driving obligations on Breeders Crown night at Woodbine, MacDonald picked up the drive on Betterthancheddar. MacDonald and the Casie Coleman trainee won the glamour boy Three Year Old Pacing Colt division by a nose.
  • In August 2011, MacDonald returned home to P.E.I. to drive in the Gold Cup and Saucer. He guided Blissfull Breeze to victory in the $60,000 event at Charlottetown Driving Park. He also won the Gold Cup & Saucer in 2003 and 2004 with Sand Olls Dexter.
  • On July 23, 2011, MacDonald and Action Broadway pulled off a 25-1 shocker in the $349,000 Armbro Flight Stakes.
  • On May 26, 2011, an accident occurred during Mohawk’s 10th race, unseating MacDonald and fellow driver Jody Jamieson, who was unharmed. MacDonald sustained a broken nose and jaw and a dislocated his right shoulder. After a month of recovery, he returned to the bike.
  • In June 2010, MacDonald won his first $1.5 million Pepsi North America Cup with the Casie Coleman trainee, Sportswriter.  The 3-1 third choice opened up by three lengths to win in a career-best of 1:48.3. 
  • MacDonald also drove the Coleman pupil Western Silk who had stellar 2010 sophomore campaign.  In 15 starts the three-year-old filly won 11 races, had one second place finish and two third place finishes.  Her bank roll for the year reached just over $1.1 million. Her stake wins include three O.S.S. Gold Finals, $666,000 Fan Hanover, $164,383 S.B.O.A. Stakes Final, the Jugette in two straight heats at Ohio's Delaware County Fairgrounds and the $300,000 O.S.S. Super Final.  The daughter of Western Terror-Extemporaneous was the recipient of the 2010 O’Brien Award for three-year-old filly pacers.
  • MacDonald and Sportswriter, a Casie Coleman trainee, were just shy of having a perfect 2009 season.  In eight starts, the two-year-old pacer won seven races with one second place finish in the Breeders Crown where he was beat by a head.  The duo won the $1 million Metro Pace in a World Record clocking of 1:49.2. The son of Artsplace–Precious Beauty was the recipient of the 2009 O’Brien Award for two-year-old pacing colts and geldings.
  • In 2007, behind Domitian Hanover, MacDonald grabbed the $195,405 Canadian Breeders Championship final for three-year-old pacing colts and geldings at Mohawk Racetrack, pulling out a gutsy victory over Bigtime Ball in a new lifetime best clocking of 1:50.0, then made it a two-fer by winning the CBC division for three-year-old colt and gelding trotters as well, with Guilford, in July.
  • MacDonald scored his first Breeders’ Crown win (and the first for trainer Casie Coleman) with millionaire mare, Moving Pictures, in the Older Mare Pace in September, 2007; he also piloted Moving Pictures to capture the $379,000 Roses Are Red Stakes at Mohawk in June of that year, as well as the $393,750 Milton Stakes in September.
  • On October 1, 2005, at The Red Mile in Lexington, Kentucky, MacDonald and American Ideal reset the world record for a three-year-old pacing colt to 1:47.4 during a division of the Bluegrass Stakes, a record that stood until Somebeachsomewhere’s 1:46.4 mile in 2008.
  • MacDonald won his second consecutive O’Brien Award as Canada’s Driver of the Year (edging out Jody Jamieson) in 2006, capping off a season in which he won the Little Brown Jug with Jimmy Takter-trained Mr Feelgood, the first Canadian-sired horse to ever capture a heat, let alone the ‘Jug’ itself.
  • In 2006, MacDonald set a Canadian record for driving wins in a single season visiting the winner’s circle 739 times.
  • MacDonald surely stamped himself as one of harness racing’s future superstars in 2005, winning his first O’Brien Award (edging out Paul MacDonell). He was also named the U.S. Harness Writers’ Association’s ‘Rising Star of The Year.’
  • MacDonald broke Chris Christoforou’s 1999 Canadian single-season dash winning record (643) in the 2005 season, as he notched 692 victories, with the record breaker coming on December 15 at Flamboro Downs aboard Chianaglia.
  • Early in the 2004 season, before making the move to drive full-time at WEG, MacDonald was involved in a serious racing accident on January 3 at Western Fair Raceway. He suffered several broken bones in his face, including his jaw, but was only sidelined for about one month. When he returned to the sulky later that campaign, he put together a marvellous campaign, which later saw him surpass 2,000 wins and notch five wins on the December 18 card of racing.
  • The summer of 2003 saw MacDonald do a lot of racing at Flamboro Downs – especially in the Ontario Sires Stakes program – and from there, he took a shot at racing at WEG, where he blossomed into one of the elite in Canada’s toughest driving colony.
  • In 2003, MacDonald captured the Gold Cup and Saucer at Charlottetown Driving Park with Sand Olls Dexter, and defended his title with the gritty pacer in 2004.
  • At the age of 16, MacDonald made the trek to Ontario’s Windsor Raceway to work as a groom. Leaving and then coming back to the oval when he was 18, MacDonald brought seven horses of his own and then raced at Windsor for four years. From there, MacDonald relocated to London, Ontario’s Western Fair Raceway.
  • MacDonald, whose father owned broodmares, acquired his first horse by the time he was just 14. A year later, MacDonald was doing a bit of driving on the matinee tracks in Prince Edward Island.