by Victoria Howard

When it was time for Grand River Raceway, located in Elora, ON, to select a new racing manager, they couldn’t have chosen a more qualified woman than Jenna MacDonell. Grand River Raceway originally opened 20 years ago and is one of the few harness tracks in the area that is still going strong.

The venue is an entertainment, racing, and gaming destination, that besides horse racing, offers over 230 slot machines in the Elements Casino for those who want to test their luck on the one-armed bandits.

The racetrack offers seasonal live racing (summer), year-round simulcast of racing from across North America, and many other special events. It is the complete ultimate destination for live horse racing and fans from all walks of life to attend.

Being a manager of any type is not easy. The most important thing that a racing manager must do is make sure everything (from the races to the backend) runs smoothly; so, managing a racetrack is very important, yet difficult to do. In other words, overseeing and managing the racing end is actually quite a lot.

When fourth-generation harness racing horsewoman, Jenna MacDonell, was appointed to the job she said she was ecstatic and honored.

Born in Mississauga, ON, little MacDonell spent most of her childhood days in the barn where her family lived on a hobby farm with a couple of broodmares. She would go to the barn and help her grandfather every chance she could, and any night that he raced his horses she would accompany him to Kawartha Downs, located in Peterborough, ON.

Racing standardbreds was nothing new to MacDonell, for her father, Paul MacDonell, is a Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame driver. In fact, both of her grandfathers owned and trained racehorses, and her great-grandfather, Angus J. MacDonell, raced horses in Nova Scotia in the 1920s and ’30s.

“I have been obsessed with the sport since I was born,” Jenna said. “When I was a teenager, I worked as a groom for some well-known trainers, such as Tony O’Sullivan and Ben Wallace. While attending the university I got a job in the customer service department at Mohawk.

“I’m very excited with the changes made here, for over the winter the track at Grand River was expanded from a half-mile track to five-eighths-of-a-mile by renowned developer Greg Coon.

Our marquee races — The Battle of Waterloo and The Battle of the Belles — [took] place on Aug. 5th. It [was] so exciting to see the 2-year-old Ontario-sired pacing colts and fillies take to the new improved track.”

Beside taking over the responsibility of managing the racing at Grand River, MacDonell has another very important and tedious job: she is a single mother.

Raising a child today as a single mom is hard enough, but juggling it along with a full-time job can be extremely arduous.

“It is hard, but thankfully I have a lot of help from my family,” she said. “My parents and my sisters live close by, so my son Griffin is in the best hands when I’m not with him.

“I’m also a realtor in the off-season of racing and that takes up a lot of time traveling here and there, so I’m so very blessed I have my family on hand.

Jenna said with the new track size, everyone at Grand River is really looking toward seeing some fast races.

“The response from the expansion of the track is all positive and everyone seems to love it,” she said. “Our goal here is to produce a fabulous card and to show everyone how much fun racing can be. The Grand River team is awesome and are on board making sure there are new people coming to the track. We have some pretty awesome patio parties and always try to give the customers a great first-time experience so they will return.

“We offer to show the fans just how fun a night at the races can be for the entire family. Marketing to the general public is essential, and our job is to educate them on the horses and, at times, even offer paddock tours giving them a sneak peek behind the scenes, which they love.

“Most of the time when the people walk into the paddock and see the grooms at work on the horses, they are blown away. In my opinion it really opens the average person’s eyes to how exciting our sport is!”

When asked why our sport seems to be declining, Jenna has a definitive answer.

“We have an amazing sport, but a lot of people just don’t know about it,” she said. “It can be a fabulous experience for both the young and old. It is my job, along with the help of my team, to show them and give them one of the best evenings of their life.”