Veteran driver Paul MacDonell wins final race of his illustrious career

The win was the 5,786th of MacDonell’s career, which began in 1981. Canada’s top driver in 2008, MacDonell had 46,315 career starts and earned over $127.9 million.

MacDonell, 63, of Oshawa, Ont., also won 138 races from 859 starts as a trainer, surpassing $2.79 million in earnings. He was inducted into the Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame in 2020.

MacDonell won his final race with family and friends in attendance. After hitting the finish line, drivers in the race offered MacDonell their congratulations before others at Woodbine joined him in the winner’s circle.

“I’d been thinking about this (retirement) for quite a while and it was time,” MacDonell said. “It definitely was bittersweet but I’ve had a great career.

“I love going to the track every night but there’s a time for other parts of life to happen and that’s where I am.”

MacDonell and his wife, Lynn, have property in Cape Breton, N.S., and will call the Maritimes home. But with family being involved in racing and the presence of tracks nearby in Nova Scotia, MacDonell won’t be far from the sport.

However, he doesn’t anticipate coming out of retirement.

“As a rule I stick to my guns,” he said. “I can’t see me doing it again but I will have a close eye on things, put it that way.”

MacDonell’s fondest career memory was driving legendary pacer Somebeachsomewhere in 2007-08. Over that span, the Canadian-bred horse won 20-of-21 starts with a second-place finish.

Somebeachsomewhere earned over $3.2 million and was Canada’s horse of the year in both seasons as well as North America’s top performer in 2008. He became the first Canadian-sired horse to earn the honour south of the border.

“The obvious answer is Somebeachsomewhere and the two years we had with him,” MacDonell said. “He’s going down in history as one of the greatest horses to ever live and he really means a lot to me.

“That was a defining moment in my career, for sure.”

Somebeachsomewhere continued to dominate racing even after retiring in 2009 as a prolific stallion. His list of foals includes Captaintreacherous — the ’12 Metro Pace and ’13 North America Cup winner — and ’14 Little Brown Jug winner Limelight Beach.

Somebeachsomewhere was named harness racing’s top horse of the decade (2000-09) and was inducted into both the Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame (2009) and USTA Living Horse Hall of Fame (2015). But he was diagnosed with a cancerous growth in November 2017 and put down the following year at age 13 after unsuccessful chemotherapy.

MacDonell said there’s more to driving championship-calibre horses than just going along for the ride. It’s the driver’s job to keep the animals out of trouble on the track and put them in a position to succeed while making sure they don’t overdo it.

But MacDonell said it wasn’t difficult to sense Somebeachsomewhere was special.

“He was such a push-button animal, he knew what to do,” MacDonell said. “He was smart and I just basically tried to keep him out of trouble as much as I could and let him do what he needed to do to succeed.

“But I think a driver must have a feel for a horse and the top guys have that. They make a connection with the horse and you see it every night, the top guys rise to the top because of that. There’s no question in my mind they have a definite connection.”

MacDonell’s decision to retire comes at a time when he still loves to compete and make the daily treks to the track. But there are elements of the sport he won’t miss.

“Last winter was really hard on me.” he said. “I had a stable of eight for most of the winter and I can remember going out there in -30 C and saying to myself, ‘This is the end of this, I’m going to be done.’

“And then the years and years of doing it all add up. Someone sent me a note that I had over 46,000 drives so that’s a lot of racing, a lot of wear and tear, for sure.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 25, 2026.

Dan Ralph, The Canadian Press

by The Canadian Press

Veteran driver Paul MacDonell wins final race of his illustrious career

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