{"id":95069,"date":"2026-07-24T12:16:02","date_gmt":"2026-07-24T15:16:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/2026\/07\/24\/inverness-horsewoman-mary-macquarrie-never-let-age-stop-her-from-training-horses-in-cape-breton\/"},"modified":"2026-07-24T12:16:02","modified_gmt":"2026-07-24T15:16:02","slug":"inverness-horsewoman-mary-macquarrie-never-let-age-stop-her-from-training-horses-in-cape-breton","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/2026\/07\/24\/inverness-horsewoman-mary-macquarrie-never-let-age-stop-her-from-training-horses-in-cape-breton\/","title":{"rendered":"Inverness horsewoman Mary MacQuarrie never let age stop her from training horses in Cape Breton"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p>Article contentIndividually, MacQuarrie was the trainer of the year at Inverness Raceway in 2003 in the 20-40 starts category.Article contentTwo years later in 2005 with Cam Dena and Majesty in her stable, MacQuarrie was the trainer of the year in the 40-plus starts category. Cam Dena was the claimer of the year in 2003, while Majesty captured the same award in 2005.Article contentMacQuarrie\u2019s son, Dougie, was the top driver of the year in 2005 in the 40-plus start category, posting a .428 Universal Driver Rating System.Article contentOver the years, MacQuarrie had the opportunity to train some successful horses including Yankee Apollo, Ace In Hand, and Kawanda Kid.Article content Mary MacQuarrie of Inverness has been involved in the harness racing community at Inverness Raceway for more than 60 years. She is a longtime trainer who still enjoys jogging horses when she can. CONTRIBUTEDArticle contentNEXT GENERATIONArticle contentToday, MacQuarrie is credited with inspiring the next generation of women in harness racing.Article contentDriver Monica Sutherland calls Inverness Raceway home, while Clare MacDonald also makes trips to the Cape Breton track on occasion. Off the track, Lily Watson and Melanie LeBlanc are involved in the training side of the sport at Inverness Raceway.Article contentArticle content\u201cIt\u2019s nice to see more women involved in the sport,\u201d said MacQuarrie. \u201cI didn\u2019t think of myself as someone who inspired others, but it\u2019s good to know that I may have played in a role in their careers in harness racing.\u201dArticle contentMacQuarrie, who turns 90 years old in October, continued to train horses right up until two years ago. She continued to jog horses on a regular basis until last year.Article contentDespite her age, Copley wasn\u2019t worried about her mother with the horses.Article content\u201cWe knew that was keeping her going,\u201d said Copley. \u201cAs long as she had the horses, she was going to be around. It\u2019s remarkable to think the way she got into it with my father\u2019s accident.\u201dArticle content Seeing Mary MacQuarrie venturing through the back streets of Inverness to get to the Inverness Raceway for a training session is not something that was unusual. The 89-year-old MacQuarrie has been involved in the harness racing community for more than 60 years and is known for training and jogging horses. CONTRIBUTEDArticle content\u2018A LOT OF GOOD MEMORIES\u2019Article contentWhile hip and back issues have forced MacQuarrie to take a step back from jogging horses, she hasn\u2019t ruled out getting back in the sulky at some point this season.Article content\u201cI\u2019ve had a lot of good memories on the track, so it\u2019s hard to pick just one memory,\u201d said MacQuarrie. \u201cI\u2019d like to go for a ride this year and slowly get back into it, but we\u2019ll see what happens.\u201dArticle contentArticle contentMacQuarrie still enjoys going to the racetrack and rarely misses a race date during the season. She also enjoys watching the career of her grandson, Jamie Copley, and is looking forward to seeing her great-grandchildren on the track racing in the years to come.Article contentOn the track on Wednesday night, Mando Fun, Eastwardho Fun, Dirty Bobby, Effie May Cay, Crosscut, Lady of Malice, Talk Some Smack, Shir Gain and Hugh Heff each earned victories at Inverness Raceway as part of the track\u2019s annual Gathering Week event.Article contentHugh Heff won the feature race of the evening, while Lady of Malice took home the Phil Pinkney Memorial race for the two-year-old pacing fillies.Article contentHarness racing action is expected to resume on Sunday afternoon at 1 p.m., in Inverness. The safest bet of the day will be that MacQuarrie and her family will be there supporting the local drivers and horses.Article content<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Article contentIndividually, MacQuarrie was the trainer of the year at Inverness Raceway in 2003 in the 20-40 starts category.Article contentTwo years later in 2005 with Cam Dena and Majesty in her stable, MacQuarrie was the trainer of the year in the 40-plus starts category. Cam Dena was the claimer of the year in 2003, while [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":108,"featured_media":95070,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[118,590,1],"tags":[116,589],"class_list":["post-95069","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-indigenous","category-newfoundland-and-labrador","category-uncategorized","tag-indigenous","tag-newfoundland-and-labrador"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95069","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/108"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=95069"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95069\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/95070"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=95069"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=95069"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=95069"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}