From Port Hood to Mohawk with the MacDonells

by Melissa Keith

At 6 p.m. tonight (July 31), a special place comes alive in rural Cape Breton, NS. The Irish Road Horsemen’s Club plays host to its annual non-wagering matinee card, at a track which serves as a training center throughout the year. The talent that originates here is almost beyond belief. The connection to Woodbine Mohawk Park is sometimes invisible, but always indelible.

Lewis MacDonell is the father of young Ontario horsemen Mark and Keith MacDonell.

“It all ties back to our grandfather, Angus A. MacDonell,” Lewis said. “His sons Donald Alex, ‘Vesty’ [John], and Blaise are all connected to the race game. ‘Vesty’ would be [trainer] Mary Ratchford’s grandfather. He was in Michigan for years. He raced at Hazel Park, Wolverine, Northville, and Jackson. He was there for many, many years. His wife [Mary (Magdalene)] still lives there, but she’s here now. She’s back in Cape Breton with three of her daughters.”

Blaise is the father of 2020 Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame inductee Paul MacDonell, while Donald Alex is the grandfather of Mark MacDonell, one of the original five candidates for the 2025 O’Brien Future Star Award. Ironically, one of the top three finalists for that award was Mary Ratchford, whose mother Jean Ratchford is one of Vesty’s daughters.

“My father, Donald Alex, was the oldest of the family and he kind of started the thing off, racing in Port Hood and Inverness back in the ‘50s… He kept it going right up until he passed in 2002,” Lewis said. “We had a horse called Coco Motion right up until then.”

Grandfather Angus A. was a World War I vet who lost an arm in the Battle of Vimy Ridge.

“He came back and actually raced on the ice here, probably in the ‘30s with a trotting mare in a trotting sleigh,” Lewis said.

Angus famously drove with a hook attached to where he had lost his arm in combat.

Port Hood Raceway opened in June 1957. Lewis recalled that “there was nothing before that” on the property; local horsemen broke ground to build the new track in spring 1957. Racing stopped in the early 1960s.

“There was a dispute with the land,” Lewis said. “They didn’t have a clear title to it; there was kind of a mix-up there. Some people got kind of sour about it, and it kind of fell to the wayside. It changed hands two or three different times. Then, I think it was in the early ‘70s, it came up for a tax sale.”

The Port Hood track was rescued by buyers who intended to keep it open for training.

“Seven individuals from the community bought it on the tax sale, and we’ve had it ever since then and keep it going,” Lewis said. “They were all horsepeople and all involved… They just wanted to keep the track going for what it was.”

The Irish Road Horsemen’s Association runs Port Hood Raceway.

“We have a great place to train, and we race just once a year to help offset all the costs for maintaining the track and stone dust and power bills,” Lewis told HRU. “We’ll have a barbeque and a beer garden on the homestretch there… Hopefully we’ll have five dashes.”

Mark and Keith will be back for this year’s races at Port Hood.

“Mark said he’s flying in tomorrow [July 29] morning; I think his grandmother’s going to pick him up,” Lewis said. “And then Keith’s coming home Thursday [July 30].”

Mark was listed to drive Southfield Sandy at Inverness July 29, his first pari-mutuel drive in Cape Breton in almost two years. The 25-year-old horseman’s initial qualifying drives were in Feb. 2023 at Mohawk and Flamboro; his first pari-mutuel driving win came on Feb. 25, 2024 at Flamboro with Dapper Fella. Mark’s maiden victory as a trainer was on June 27, 2021 at Inverness; his father drove winner Hughgetthecredit.

In late 2025, Keith joined his brother in Ontario.

“They’ve been together there since November, I guess,” Lewis said. “They’ve been helping Tony O’Sullivan with the 2-year-olds all winter.”

In October 2021, New Zealand-born O’Sullivan was named Woodbine’s standardbred race secretary after training and driving in Canada for over two decades. In June 2024, Jim Gillespie replaced him as race secretary.

Now O’Sullivan is coming back strong, as the MacDonell brothers assist with his stable at Classy Lane Training Centre in Puslinch, ON. Trainee Mericana Hanover (p, 2, Q1:56.1s; $2,498), a daughter of Captaintreacherous—Musicale Hanover, won her debut qualifier July 3 at Mohawk. Leaving from post 10, she finished fifth in the July 10 Tompkins-Geers Stake at Mohawk, her first start.

On July 3 at Mohawk, Cattlewash—Pasta Blue Chip colt TH Benedict (p, 2, 1:52.2s; $52,395) broke his maiden in Ontario Sires Stakes Gold leg 1 for 2-year-old male pacers. It was O’Sullivan’s first training win since capturing the Sept. 30, 2021 OSS Grassroots semi-final with 2-year-old trotting filly Lovin Julie. TH Benedict finished second in OSS Gold leg 2 on July 19 at Mohawk, rescheduled after drifting smoke caused an earlier cancelation.

Expect to see other 2-years-olds from the O’Sullivan stable on track in the near future.

“They have three Bulldog [Hanovers]; I think they’re getting close to qualifying some of them,” Lewis said. “I’m not sure what the deal is, but we’ll find out when [Mark and Keith] get home.”

This year, Keith found success with trainees Dragons Better, Dragon You Along, and Tour Champion before they were claimed away. Tour Champion had provided him with his first Mohawk training win on Feb. 16.

“That’s just the way it works,” Lewis said.

Keith also raced Jack Boswall, who never missed a check for his 23-year-old trainer in three early-season Mohawk starts.

“Mark had three or four racehorses all winter with Laverne Turnbull,” Lewis said. “They’re at Miami now in Manitoba and they’re going to The Loop in Winnipeg when they start there in August.”

Seafarer won his Mohawk debut with Mark as trainer on Feb. 15; on June 23 at Georgian Downs, Mark also drove him to an 11-1 upset.

Although 12 years old when he drove his first race, finishing on the board with DWs Hidden Star at Port Hood, don’t expect to see Mark in the sulky there today (July 31).

“He’s got too much stuff to do with us around the track [tonight], helping out, maybe selling 50-50 or tri-cash tickets or whatever we have to do,” Lewis said. “I think I’ll be doing the same thing.”

It’s likely the same story for Keith, who won his second career drive there in 2019 with DWs Hidden Star.

Watching simulcast races from Mohawk makes a career in harness racing’s big leagues “something to strive for” among young Cape Bretoners, noted Lewis. Opportunities for hands-on learning are more important than pedigree alone.

“Mark and Keith, they grew up around the barn over here,” he said. “They came with me to Inverness when they were pretty small, like I did myself, back in the day. You were always around horses… That’s the way it works.”