Free Issue! Try Saltscapes Magazine before you buy. Download Now

Stepping off his flight in Montreal late at night, top North American horse trainer Mark Ford is thinking it’s time to find a hotel. But longtime friend Mike MacDonald is waiting for him, and will have no part of his hotel talk. MacDonald and his wife, Judy—waiting at home—insist on treating Ford to some old-fashioned Maritime hospitality.

“Mike would go busting through the door and yell ‘Judy;’ there would be a four-course dinner on the table, then a full breakfast the next day at 7 a.m.

“Not just me,” adds Ford, who lives in upstate New York. “He would drag anyone home.”

As hospitable as MacDonald may be, he is far more than a one-trick pony. Through an illustrious harness racing career in Canada and the United States he’s won just shy of 2,300 races, and his horses have earned more than $13 million in prize money.

He operated his stable—involving looking after some 40 horses, training them, entering them in races and then driving the carts, called sulkies, in the races—at a facility in the early years called Blue Bonnets Raceway, later renamed Hippodrome de Montreal, for more than 40 years. But it wasn’t the happiest of events that took him to Montreal.

MacDonald, 61, grew up in Charlottetown near the Charlottetown Driving Park, where he got hooked on racing.
While in his mid-teens, he was in a hockey game that got ugly. When all was said and done, MacDonald spent a night in jail to cool off, and decided then and there to leave the Island.

“I just kind of got disgusted with myself,” he recalls. “I said, ‘Geez, I have to go somewhere else.’”

That somewhere else was Montreal. The next day he packed his bags and started hitchhiking, on his way to work for another Islander, James “Roach” MacGregor.

In 1973 he married Judy and opened his own stable, which turned out to be just the beginning of his remarkable career.

MacDonald is quick to credit Maritimers for his success. “I didn’t really make myself successful,” he says, shrugging. “I had a lot of good horses from home.”

Lifelong friend Mike Campbell says the environment they grew up in is what made MacDonald the horseman he is.

“He worked for some of the best horsemen that ever lived,” Campbell says. “Those old boys that were around the Island when we were kids growing up… if they thought you were serious about your trade, they would help you and tell you what was right and what was wrong.

“Those fellas… were the best. Any one of them could’ve went anywhere and excelled because they were all top notch horsemen.”

He says MacDonald could see in horses what most people couldn’t.

“A lot of times over the years he took horses that people tried to race and couldn’t do any good with them.

“He’s never taken a horse for anybody and kept it when it wasn’t doing any good,” Campbell says.

“If the horse wasn’t doing well he would call you up and say, ‘I have this horse and when he gets a little better, you know, we’ll try him again.’ That’s just the way he was. He was never the kind to take advantage of somebody, he used everybody fair and square I always thought.”

It would be the Gold Cup & Saucer in PEI, the biggest race on the East Coast, that would prove to be where MacDonald shined brightest.

His first win came in 1975 aboard Ventall Rainbow, then he came back to win it again in 1977 with the same horse.

In 1984, MacDonald took home Pearl’s Falcon and won the Gold Cup again, followed by another win in 1985 with Winner’s Accolade.

In 1995, MacDonald was thinking about not taking a horse to the Gold Cup but his daughter, Laura—who was 14 at the time—was certain Sandy Hanover should make the trip. This gave MacDonald his fifth Gold Cup & Saucer win, more than any other driver.

All told, between 1973 and 2007 he would race in the Gold Cup final 29 times. Many people would go on to dub MacDonald “Mr. Gold Cup & Saucer” but he doesn’t consider himself that.

“No, there has been a lot of people race in the Gold Cup & Saucer,” MacDonald says.

MacDonald has seen some talented Prince Edward Island horsemen pass through his Montreal barn before starting their own careers. Notably Mark MacDonald, a winner of more than 4,300 races, $50 million, and a two-time top Canadian driver, as well as his brother Anthony, who drives horses and helps run a family racing stable in Ontario.

“He made me,” Anthony says of MacDonald. “He made Mark, he would make something out of anybody who had anything to do with him. I don’t think you could walk around the world and find a guy like Mike MacDonald.

“He would do anything for anyone. It wouldn’t matter if you just had a fight with him last night and you needed a set of harness because you didn’t have one. If you asked, the shiniest harness would be hanging on your crossties the next morning.”

Mark says MacDonald was a teacher to him, and considering Mark’s numerous Canadian dash winning titles, he must have taught him something right.

“Mike taught me a lot about racing, and about everything really,” Mark says. “He definitely taught me a lot about training when I opened my own stable. He always presents himself good too, he’s got a lot of class.”

Presentation was something Mike had to impress upon Mark the first day the teenager was set to go for his qualifying drives. Mark rushed to the paddock after getting the barn work done, but still had his sneakers on. As soon as Mike saw Mark, he swiftly sent him back to the barn to put driving boots on.

The biggest thing Mike showed Mark was that he could make it in the business.

“He gave me a lot of confidence in myself. That’s something I didn’t have when I started working for him.”

These days, the harness racing industry in Quebec is shut down; Judy and Mike MacDonald moved back to PEI last June to retire. Mike is enjoying the East Coast breeze, thinking back on a career most would only dream of having, and no doubt watching for the rise of PEI’s next young harness racing star.

He’ll no doubt tell them that good manners and good cooking go a long way.

Other Stories You May Enjoy

Party on People

I've been thinking a lot lately about age and celebrations. Well, celebration of age, actually. Maybe it's because I recently celebrated an age where there are more years behind me than ahead. My...

Water: The Stuff of Life

I was born with a thirst for water, not to drink but to feast my eyes on. I'm told that it poured rain on the day I was born, and the month broke a 78-year rainfall record. So my early days were...

Chez Fresia

To some folks, they have a perfect, bohemian lifestyle: living in the country, pursuing their art, working when they need to, playing music together and exploring the countryside as a family. Pull...