Donna Marshall still staying in touch

Hightstown, NJ — Donna Marshall might be less hands-on when it comes to working with horses, but she still is keeping her hands in harness racing.

A fixture on the state’s harness racing scene since starting in the sport as a teenager in the mid-1970s, Donna is following up a successful career on the track by serving as the Standardbred Breeders & Owners Association of New Jersey horsemen’s representative at The Meadowlands Racetrack. She was named to the position in late March.

Over the years, Donna trained the winners of hundreds of races. More recently, when not with her own stable at Gaitway Farm in central New Jersey, she also was a caretaker for horses trained there by Ron Burke.

“I’ve always loved it,” Donna said about working with horses. “When I was growing up, I loved riding. I showed a little bit, but I didn’t enjoy it as much as I thought I would. But I really enjoyed taking care of the horses. I found I enjoyed that better.

“It’s just a special thing with the horses. You take care of them, they don’t talk back to you, they just like your love.”

Donna’s father, William Aiken, was involved in harness racing as an owner, trainer, and occasional driver. While taking care of one of his horses at Historic Track in Goshen, Donna met her future husband, Jim Marshall III. The couple was later married in Goshen.

“It’s always been a very special place to me,” Donna said about the upstate New York village, which also is home to the Harness Racing Museum and Hall of Fame.

One of the Marshalls’ first horses together was Tiogas Ginnie, a 9-year-old maiden pacing mare.

“We had trouble finding a place to even qualify her because that’s how bad her lines looked,” Donna said with a laugh. “We had a friend that used to race at Pocono a lot and he helped us get her in a qualifier there. And she won the qualifier and then she won her first race. It was so exciting.”

Jim went on to a career as a driver, winning more than 3,800 races before retiring in 2020 to become a judge at Pocono.

Among Donna’s top horses were stakes-winners including Fishing Clinic, Johns Polyview, Jurgen Hanover, Mama B, Paradise Justine, Sleep Easy, and Xqsmwa, as well as open trotter Always On Guard. As a caretaker for the Burke Stable, her horses included Dan Patch Award-winner Youaremycandygirl.

But Donna enjoyed all her horses and had an affinity for the hard-knocking ones, such as Henrietta MacFaber, who was owned by Donna and was twice Claimer of the Year at Freehold Raceway for the Marshall Stable.

“When a horse is good, they’re good,” Donna said. “It was the ones that I took care of that looked like they would never win a race again that I probably most remember because they were always an accomplishment.”

In addition to her work as a trainer and caretaker, Donna is well known for her unselfish acts of kindness. In 2013, she received the January Davies Humanitarian Award, presented by the U.S. Harness Writers Association.

She decided to slow down with the horses in large part to be able to spend more time with her daughter Kelly and 10-month-old granddaughter Lucy, who live in Vermont. But she still goes to Gaitway some mornings to help her son, Jim IV, with his small stable of horses.

And her job as the horsemen’s rep at The Meadowlands helps Donna remain connected to the sport as a whole.

“I really like this because I still kind of keep my hands in the business and can still keep in touch with everything and everyone,” Donna said. “I still love it.”

by Ken Weingartner, for the USTA