Hall of Fame

 



alonzo 'lon' mcdonald

Year of Birth: 
1862
Immortal: 
Yes
DriverTrainer: 
Yes
OwnerBreeder: 
Yes
Driver: 
Yes
Owner: 
Yes
Elected as Immortal: 
1958
Year of Death: 
1930
Biography: 

Born in 1862 near Malone, New York, Lon McDonald started as a groom for Orrin Partridge and in 1891 went to C. J. Hamlin's Village Farm in East Aurora, New York. Here he was assistant trainer, when he gave his first trotter a record - a two-year-old in 2:20. McDonald left Village Farm in 1895 and began his own stable back in Malone. In 1897 he moved his stable to Boston and worked for a number of years out of the Readville track, until the track's decline. It was then that he moved to Indianapolis so that he could be at the "hub" of the Grand Circuit races. McDonald became known with Sadie Mac 2:06 1/2 on the Grand Circuit, winning many stakes. Other good trotters he raced were: The Senator 2:03 1/2, Spencer 1:59 3/4, Allen Winter 2:06 1/4, with whom he won the first Readville Handicap, and Miss Harris M. He would never drive a hoppled pacer, but became one of the top reinsmen on the Grand Circuit. Lon McDonald died in Cleveland in 1930, readying his stable for the North Randall meet.

Published in the Harness Racing Museum's 1994 book, The Immortals