Living the dream,one day at a time,John MacMillan looks ahead after latest Mohawk victory
The veteran trainer, in the third year of battling brain cancer, scored his 40th win of 2025.
by Melissa Keith
When JJ Xavier and driver James MacDonald handily held off nine other conditioned pacers on Saturday (Dec. 27) at Woodbine Mohawk Park, it might not have seemed like the night’s standout race. It was the ninth seasonal victory for the now 7-year-old Tobago Cays—JJ Mistress gelding, who was claimed at Georgian Downs on June 15 by current owner/trainer John MacMillan. But Mohawk race 4 was also more than that. JJ Xavier’s 1:53 mile was MacMillan’s 40th training win of 2025, the Odessa, ON resident’s third year of battling glioblastoma, an aggressive form of brain cancer.
On Tuesday (Dec. 30), MacMillan confirmed that JJ Xavier (p, 6, 1:52.1f; $168,346) is the best among his active roster of 10 racehorses. Approaching his 10,000th race as a trainer, the 55-year-old horseman said a simple fact keeps him involved in the sport: “It’s all I have ever done. I love it.”
Rather than downsizing and stepping away from harness racing, the former Rideau Carleton Raceway announcer, race secretary, and general manager has doubled down, acquiring new horses throughout 2025 and finding renewed strength.
“[It’s] the love of the game and I have been doing it since I was 15 years old,” said MacMillan, who began training professionally in 2000. “I can’t imagine a life not waking up and going to the barn every day and training them.”
Although voted a top-three finalist for the 2025 USHWA Dan Patch Unsung Hero Award, MacMillan said he is no one-man show.
“I am truly honored,” he told HRU. “I try to work hard every day. I’ve been lucky and am still very lucky to have great people [around]. Owners like Glenn Bechtel, Percy Elkins, Glenn Pearson, Rob Watson, and Mike Bartram, as well as Jeff Murphy.”
Pearson celebrated his 400th win as co-owner in partnership with “Johnny Mac” when Tie Game won on Nov. 19 at Rideau Carleton for driver Guy Gagnon. Their 4-year-old trotter, currently trained by Joe Pereira, was unfortunately scratched lame Monday (Jan. 5) at Mohawk.
Racing mainly at Rideau Carleton and Kawartha Downs until the end of both meets last year, MacMillan’s 10-horse stable can now be found at Flamboro Downs and Mohawk.
“It can be difficult because of the bigger track [at Mohawk] and it is much further to travel for the horse,” he said.
MacMillan began his training career 25 years ago at Quinte Exhibition Raceway in Belleville, ON and Hippodrome Aylmer in Gatineau, QC. At press time, he had 1,842 wins from 9,951 starts as a trainer, with purse earnings of $9,150,581.
Not being based at a training center near Mohawk, it takes extra effort to travel and compete there.
“I have a great assistant named Mike Adam who helps me every day,” MacMillan said. “Honestly, [I] couldn’t do it without him.”
The trainer’s favorite current horse, 8-year-old Montysgonemarble (p, 6, 1:53.2f; $153,879) is winless in eight career starts at the Campbellville track, the latest result an off-the-board finish on Dec. 20. But MacMillan often punches above his weight when he ventures to Mohawk: On Nov. 3, Fancy Lettering (p, 3, 1:51.2s; $96,039), his only entrant, came out a 9-2 winner. The downside: the 5-year-old mare was also claimed that night.
Long influential as a director of the National Capital Region Harness Horse Owners Association (NCRHHA), representing the horsepeople of Rideau Carleton, MacMillan’s accomplishments on the track have sometimes been overshadowed by his talent for advocacy.
He began driving in amateur races at Hippodrome de Montreal in early 1999, recording his first win with Kenneth Backer-trained Dawns Revenge on Feb. 1 that year at Aylmer, in a mile-and-a-sixteenth added-distance trot. On June 7, 1999, he won the CKG Billings Amateur Driving Championship at Woodbine Racetrack, driving trotter Natural Balance (6, 1:57.1s; $291,537).
“Rick Zeron owned [him]; he was perfect.” MacMillan said.
After driving 2-year-old pacer Speedy Dancer to a maiden victory at Rideau Carleton on Sept. 14, 2025, MacMillan quietly made a decision.
“Yes, that was my last drive,” he said on Dec. 30, looking back on the year.
At the time of the victory, he had texted: “Interestingly enough, that was exactly seven years after my previous win,” driving Music Note on Sept. 14, 2019 at Kawartha Downs. Speedy Dancer is now racing at Mohawk, in search of his next win; MacMillan is content with 68 from 736 career drives.
An accomplished trainer of overnight horses, MacMillan helped develop the 2006 O’Brien Older Male Trotter of the Year, Stiletto (5, 1:53.1s; $1,006,527), a Mr Vic—Armbro Natural gelding who did not race at age 2.
On Nov. 18, 2003, MacMillan first qualified the 3-year-old Stiletto at Woodbine Racetrack. The gelding had won his first three career starts at Pocono in June-July 2003, racing for trainer Gene Daisey and Hall of Fame drivers Wally Hennesey and Hervé Filion. Unsuccessful in two Sept. 2003 starts at The Red Mile for Ross Croghan, Stiletto moved to MacMillan’s stable in Nov. 2003. Although he broke stride for driver Gilles Gendron in his Mohawk debut on Nov. 27, 2003, finishing fifth as the beaten favorite, Stiletto was sharp in a Dec. 2, 2003 qualifier at Woodbine Racetrack, winning with MacMillan in the sulky.
Dec. 7 and 18, 2003, Stiletto wired going away at Woodbine Racetrack for trainer/driver MacMillan, who subsequently listed catch drivers (mostly Tony Kerwood) but continued to condition the trotter. On Nov. 23, 2004, Stiletto was claimed for $62,500 at Woodbine. Five of his seven seasonal wins had been for MacMillan, who said he counts the gelding as one of his favorite trainees, alongside Montysgonemarble and Vanilla Malted (p, 6, 1:50.4h; $269,164). The latter broke his maiden May 18, 2019 at Kawartha in his debut for MacMillan and driver Ryan Guy. Vanilla Malted won 34 of 112 races in their three years together, five times at the Rideau preferred level.
Former marathon runner MacMillan has remained active throughout his cancer treatment, thanks to the people and horses in his life, and his dedication to the racing game. On Sunday (Jan. 5) at Flamboro, JJ Xavier and driver Paul MacKenzie provided him with his first training win of the new year. Asked about goals for 2026, MacMillan indicated that he did not have a specific milestone he wanted to reach; it was rather the reaching for never-ending milestones that motivated him.
“I have been blessed to work my entire life in harness racing, in one form or another, in the business that I cherish, and I was lucky enough to do very well,” he said. “So, for now, I will continue to live my dream, one day at a time.”
