In late April of this year I was honoured to be invited to Charlottetown by The Prince Edward Island Standardbred Horse Owners Association (PEISHOA), to be the guest speaker at their annual dinner and awards banquet. Gail MacDonald, matriarch of the well known Canadian harness racing family that includes drivers James, Mark and Anthony, was the one to actually make the invite, as well as the one that chauffeured me around that weekend and basically took care of my every need.
Gail is pretty good (understatement of the year) at taking care of others it seems, because on top of raising that family of five boys (add in Curtis and Lloyd), and still taking care of the oldest kid in the family to this day - husband, Fred - she also basically ran that entire banquet, is the track photographer at Charlottetown, has many other PEISHOA-related duties, runs the Atlantic Post Calls with Fred, and, in her ‘spare time’, she helps run the professional basketball team in town that’s known as the Charlottetown Power.
As busy as she is, while also staying on top of things in the lives of her five sons and multiple grandchildren that are scattered across both Canada and the United States, Gail, and everyone in PEI, found the time to make me feel like part of the family during my stay.
As fantastic as that was, it shouldn’t really surprise me however, as I’m well aware that FAMILY has always truly been at the root of Standardbred racing.
Aside from the many family stables that are quite evident throughout our sport, just look at this very issue of TROT on its own:
Rod and Mike Hennessy, a father and son, adorn our cover in their blue and orange family colours. They’re a family that have been through a lot, but as you’ll read or have read, they’ve come through to the other side together.
Paige Austin has carried on her late father’s legacy in racing with the support of both her immediate and harness racing families. In her interview she actually referred to racing as “one big dysfunctional family” that can hate each other one day, but are always there for each other when tragedy strikes the next. Totally true.
Human families dominate our game. There’s literally hundreds of surnames that come to mind, but I can quickly mention Bax, Filion, Fritz, Walker, Waples, McNair, Miller, Takter, Steacy, Jones, Burke, Gingras, Christoforou, Zeron, McCarthy and Henry to name just a few.
With family being so important to us from a human aspect, it’s no wonder that it also matters so much when picking out our equine partners. We study sales catalogues and pedigrees endlessly, looking for that horse from the perfect family - even though we all know, from experience, that the perfect family (horse or human) doesn’t really exist. Lol.
In our ‘Tales From Sales’ piece this month, a number of trainers share stories of how they may have mistakenly found, or eventually missed out on, a couple of great yearlings over the years. The stories are all different, but common to each one, whether it had a happy ending or not, is that the family of each yearling is always discussed.
In our ‘Daddy Debut’ section - an annual look at the upcoming first crop stallions - we look at the families (pedigrees) of the stallions as a major factor when it comes to trying to predict how successful they may be.
There’s no doubt that family matters in our sport, and the debates are endless as to which families are the best - both equine and human.
Artsplace vs. Western Hanover? Bettors Delight vs. Somebeachsomewhere? Speedy Crown vs. Super Bowl? Maybe Filion vs. Waples or Fritz vs. Walker?
There are no right answers when it comes to these never-ending debates, but I think that I can clear one thing up right here.
People do debate a little these days about Gail MacDonald’s family. Who, when it comes to the harness racing world, is the best of Gail & Fred MacDonald’s clan?
Mark won back-to-back O’Briens in 2005 & 2006; James went back-to-back in 2021 & 2022; Anthony runs what is probably the world’s largest fractional ownership racing stable and along with his wife Amy was recognized with the prestigious Cam Fella Award; ‘Cujo’ (Curtis) runs a very successful television and video communications company that covers many of racing’s biggest events.
Tough call eh? Nope. Not to me.
I’ve seen them all in action, from up close, for years. And the winner, by open lengths - and I think the family members will probably agree - is Gail. If for no other reason then that she’s had to put up with the rest of them for all of these years!
The moral of the story? When you’re out looking at yearlings this year, concentrate on the dam. Sorry Fred, you are a good one, and the sire does matter, but the dam usually matters more.
Dan Fisher [email protected]