Bud MacDonald arrived in British Columbia from Alberta in 1956 and made an immediate impression by saddling the popular handicap champion Postillion to capture the B.C. Premier’s and the Randall Plate.

Postillion, a full brother to 1946 Kentucky Derby winner Assault, was owned by F.M. Clarke, Jr., of Meadow Lake, Saskatchewan.

Here you have two of the ingredients which helped MacDonald achieve success. His horses were usually well bred, and they were owned by wealthy people. He was a horsemen’s horseman and although he was bashful by nature and never promotes himself, he always attracted the best clients.

Over the years he trained for Gloria and Jack Brown and K.O. Fowlie of Alberta, Bob and John Howe, Don Lauder, Sengara Brothers, Dillion Brothers, Nick Felicella, Peg Ellett and Sid Belzberg’s Budget Stables.

He won nearly all the big races. He won the Futurity with My Boy John, That’s A Promise and Petite Prize, who was making the first start of her career. He took the B.C. Derby with Treasures Glory and Norland. He stands fifth on the all time list of stakes winning trainers at Hastings Park at 55. Some of his notable winners were Major Turley, who won races from British Columbia to Ontario and was a special favourite of Bud’s, Count the Green, who held the 6 ½ furlong record for many years, plus Cow Boss, Fairmar, Weed Bender, Broken Bubble, Cole Date, Buffalo Bill, Glenlivet Zoie, Posturist, Artic Search, Gain Control, No Vices, Refundable, Harkerson, Cash Your Ticket, Rambling Native, Regal Sparkle and Bolt the Hatch.

Pete Baumgartner met Bud for the first time in 1953 when he was a gangly teenager who managed to ride one winner on a bush circuit track on the south side of Edmonton. Bud became a trainer and graduated to the larger Pacific tracks before coming to the West Coast. For the first few years he was here he still made frequent sojourns to the Prairies and to Ontario.

“Bud was around horses from the time he was five years old,” says his wife, Val. “He used to travel around the province with his uncle who had a Clydesdale stallion. He’d play hooky from school to be around horses.”

“Bud accumulated a lot of knowledge over the years,” says Baumgartner. “He would fiddle around and find out why a horse wasn’t running as well as he should. He left no stone unturned. The Browns (Gloria Brown was F.M. Clarke’s daughter) paid a lot of money for Broken Bubble and Cole Date and they didn’t run much at all in Alberta. But when they came out here Bud won a lot of races with them.”

Bud died two years ago at age 77.