Game Changers: Primetime Bobcat

TORONTO, July 16, 2025 – Once a week, throughout the Mohawk racing season, Woodbine will profile a horse who has had a life-changing impact on one of their closest connections.

This week, driver Jody Jamieson, who in August 2024 became the first Canadian-based driver to reach $150 million in purse earnings, and former world record holder, pacer Primetime Bobcat.

The three-time O’Brien Award winning reinsman (2007, 2009, 2011) shares the story of how a chance encounter set the wheels in motion for an unforgettable partnership.

Primetime Bobcat

Foaled: May 17, 1997

Sire: Abercrombie

Dam: Emerald Girl

Wins-Seconds-Thirds: 48-31-25

Earnings: $740,637

Trainer: Anthony Montini

Owner: Dale March (most recent)

Breeder: Armstrong Bros

What was it like forming a connection with this horse in the race bike?

“Well, it’s a funny story. Mark MacDonald was driving the horse – Mark and I are great friends – but he also had a horse for Rich Griffiths, Tigerama, in the same race. It was the [2004] Spring Pacing Championship final, which used to be a free-for-all open pace that went way before real free-for-allers started racing.

“Anyway, Mark qualified the two of them for the final and he decided to drive Tigerama who looked like the better horse. As it turned out, I was just driving there – Mark and I used to carpool from Flamboro periodically as we were both cutting our teeth there – but Mark’s career had really taken off, and I was still kind of on his coattails.

“When he couldn’t drive Primetime Bobcat for the Montini team, he mentioned to put me down on the horse and that I would get along well with him. So, they put me on him, and didn’t I win the final of the series with him. I don’t even know how fast it went but I’ll tell you, it was the moment that changed things for me.

“I really think that after that win – I had won stakes races before but after I won that final with Primetime Bobcat, people took notice that I wasn’t just Mark MacDonald’s buddy from Flamboro, I was someone who could get the job done, too.

“Primetime Bobcat and Mark MacDonald taught me a lot about driving horses in this harness game.”

What race of his was most meaningful to you and why?

“The Spring Championship was obviously big, but I did win with him in 1:47.2 in May of that year. That was the track record at Woodbine – he might have retired with the track record, actually. It was also a Canadian record at the time, and the fastest mile ever by more than a second.

“He was a really special horse for those connections. I’m not even sure what he made lifetime, but I know he was eight or nine years old when I raced him in that series, and he just became a better horse.

“He missed some time racing before he came back and became a free-for-aller, but that was the biggest race that I won with him. Although, I won some Opens with him and I raced him in some big races. We didn’t quite get the job done in the other big races, but he was my first real free-for-aller type horse.”

You’ve driven plenty of standout horses over your career. What in particular made Primetime Bobcat special?

“I’m an aggressive driver and I like to have them forwardly placed more often than not. He was the type of horse where you could leave with him and sit with him. Lots of times in those days I didn’t have horses that I could leave and sit with and then they’d still have pace finishing.

“This horse was one of, obviously not the first one, but one of the ones that sticks out to me that I could leave in 25 and a piece with, follow him along to a half in 53 or 54, and then when he got loose in the stretch he’d throw a 26 or a 27 at them in the final quarter, which, was kind of unheard of.

“It was unheard of for me as a driver to drive a horse that could do that, so that’s what made him special.”

Three words to describe him?

“Sleek. Iron tough.”

How has he changed your life?

“He sure did help launch my driving career. I was already driving by then obviously, but he helped me a lot by letting people see that I can drive any type of horse. I’ll always remember my time with him.”

Matthew Lomon, for Woodbine