I got it working. It appears to be related to the length and order of the macdef names. You have to have your macdefs in Alpha order and have the name differences occur in the first 8 characters or so. For example:

macdef ftp_TESTDB_cobol
macdef ftp_TESTDB_txt
macdef ftp_TESTDB_log

would always run the first macdef,

macdef TESTDB_cobol
macdef TESTDB_log
macdef TESTDB_txt

resolves the macdefs correctly.

Just in case anyone is interested.