Harness: Mark MacDonald is back on track and looking forward to 2022

There are many followers of the sport that believe catch-drivers have an easy job. While trainers and caretakers spend infinitely more time with the horses, it is thought that all catch-drivers do is sit behind them for a fraction of the time and earn big money for the task. While this equation may be true in a singular sense, catch-drivers, as independent contractors, are under significant pressure to maintain their connections and follow a path that leads to income. While trainers and caretakers can move from horse to horse should one go lame, catch-drivers are left having to fend for themselves should racing luck find them injured.

Driver Mark MacDonald has known his share of injuries. Over the course of his driving career, he's had to make adjustments, not just to recover physically, but to regain acceptance in a very competitive and often over-crowded landscape of top drivers. In 2021, after two down years, he was able to regain form, and thanks to a pair of precocious stakes performers, regain elite status and pull off major victories.

MacDonald guided the fortunes of Meadowlands Pace winner Lawless Shadow during the best part of his racing season and is hopeful the now-4-year-old will return from injury to race at the top level this year.

"I know he got put up [placed first] in the Meadowlands Pace, but it still felt great being in the winner's circle," MacDonald said, reflecting on what was essentially a career-changing moment that once again cast him in the spotlight on the sport's biggest stage. "It was great driving him after and winning the Hempt outright."

Unfortunately, Lawless Shadow's 3-year-old campaign would come to an abrupt halt after the August 21 victory in the Hempt at Pocono. He would suffer a fractured coffin bone in preparation for the North America Cup that would sideline him for trainer Dr. Ian Moore.

"It was disappointing for sure," said MacDonald. "I think Lawless Shadow would have done very well in the Little Brown Jug.

"I think Lawless Shadow can return this year and be a major player in the Graduate and the other 4-year-old races," said MacDonald of the son of Shadow Play.

On the trotting side, King Of The North more than lived up to his royal pedigree in 2021, with MacDonald's cool hands guiding him to a major victory early in the season in the Peter Haughton Memorial at the Meadowlands.

"He was really sharp the night of the Mohawk Million," said MacDonald of King Of The North. "He got taken out at the start and raced great to finish fifth. Not to take anything away from the winner, but I really think he could have won that race if not for what happened to him at the start."

MacDonald's base of reference, of course, was that King Of The North was such a convincing winner over the same Woodbine Mohawk surface just two weeks earlier in capturing the William Wellwood Memorial.

King Of The North's season ended prematurely for MacDonald as well.

"He got a little sick and just wasn't himself after The Red Mile. [Trainer] Ray [Schnittker] did the right thing with him and shut him down," said MacDonald.

King Of The North captured the 2-year-old divisional title, and MacDonald hopes to have a date with him that coincides with the first Saturday in August.

"I'm really looking forward to racing in the Hambletonian with him this year," said MacDonald, in quest of the sport's most prestigious prize.

While Lawless Shadow and King Of The North were the most influential mounts of 2021, MacDonald made some significant choices of his own that helped him achieve greater success.

"I concentrated on racing in the New York Sire Stakes," said MacDonald, who captured a championship final with the Schnittker-trained JD as a 15-1 shot in the $200,000 2-year-old pacing colts and geldings event.

Looking back on MacDonald's career, it's easy to see a dramatic shift in the numbers and a realization that drivers must constantly evolve or be left behind. In 2005 MacDonald sat behind 4,237 starters and in 2021 just 1,359.

"Back then, the way the tracks were structured in Ontario, it wasn't that difficult to drive during the day and night regularly," said MacDonald of the gaudy number of starts. "The travel does take a toll on you."

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MacDonald's loyalty and concern for the well-being of the trainers and owners he drives for is a significant part of his dramatic comeback in 2021.

"I try to race at tracks I can drive to," said MacDonald, who is based in Goshen, New York. "I know that there are some drivers who will fly private and bill the owners, but I just can't do that," said MacDonald of a common practice in the sport for leading catch-drivers that need to be at two tracks on a given day for multiple stakes engagements.

MacDonald is comfortable with limited engagements this winter to keep active and hopefully pick up some potential stakes clients.

"I'm going to race weekends at the Meadowlands," MacDonald said, while confirming that there could be some nights at Yonkers when called upon.

It's a balancing act for many of today's best drivers, and MacDonald appears to be comfortable driving fewer horses and maximizing his earning potential. With a limited number of drives, MacDonald's mounts earned $2,916 per start in 2021, leading to $3.96 million in total for the campaign.

Perhaps the most significant accomplishment for MacDonald last year was proving to owners that he could compete and win major races.

"It's about being in major races and winning major races," said MacDonald, who hopes to find himself in the driver's seat in 2022, not just lining up behind the starting gate, but in the winner's circle in some of the sport's most important races.

With the rigors of driving more than 4,000 horses annually behind him, MacDonald now seems acutely focused on seeking out the best drives with the highest earning potential. Given last year's incredible comeback, he appears destined to make the most of every opportunity afforded him.