Source :- THE AGE NEWS
James McDonald is starting to get worried he might sound disrespectful. Even ungrateful.
Australian racing fans will be watching Rosehill on Saturday to see if McDonald – this country’s best jockey, and quite possibly the best rider in the world – can break Damien Oliver’s long-standing Australian record of 129 group 1 wins. McDonald has 128 group 1 winners.
Sitthixay Ditthavong
The bookies are convinced McDonald will set a new mark before he gets to the main event, the $5 million Golden Slipper, where he will ride two-year-old colt Fireball.
Friends and family have been at McDonald for weeks, asking how he is feeling.
Even non-racing folk who greet him each morning at his favourite cafe, Rocco’s in flashy Vaucluse, smile and wish him all the best in his pursuit of the record while he waits patiently for his double-shot soy latte.
The truth of the matter is, McDonald, 34, is more excited about the chance to break another record on Saturday – one that has barely rated a mention.
“The partnership with Chris [Waller] and the chance to beat Tommy Smith and George Moore’s record means more to me,” McDonald says. “To do it with Chris, it would mean so much.
“He’s done so much for my career, and his work ethic is incredible.
“If I can get past Olly’s riding record, it would be great, but it would mean more to my family – it would mean so much to the people who have sacrificed so much to help me get to where I am today.
“But I truly haven’t thought about that. It’s not that I’m ungrateful, but it almost feels irrelevant. Plus, I don’t want to stop at 130. I’d love to get to 150. Even more. It’s a number to me.
“I’d rather share a moment with someone like Chris than do something by myself. It would be nice to get past Tommy and George.”
Smith, the late father of trainer Gai Waterhouse, and Moore, an outstanding jockey, were a powerhouse racing duo, combining to win 54 group 1s. Their last major success was in 1971.
McDonald and Waller have 53 group 1 wins together.
They will team up with Aeliana ($1.60) in the group 1 Ranvet Stakes, Autumn Boy ($2.10) in the Rosehill Guineas, the undefeated Autumn Glow ($1.35) in the George Ryder Stakes, Fireball ($14) in the Slipper and Generosity ($13) in The Galaxy.
When you tell Waller about McDonald’s comments, he shakes his head and says: “I think that’s James deflecting from his own achievements.
“What he is about to achieve is quite remarkable, and at such a young age. It’s an honour to be working with him.
“He’s a historian, a proud racing follower who isn’t just a jockey or groundbreaker, but someone who loves the sport and idolises what people did before him.”
Waller and McDonald were both raised on dairy farms on the North Island of New Zealand, only to rise to the top of their professions in Sydney. For Waller, there is nothing romantic about the fact they are both Kiwis.
“I think we’re both proud ‘Anzacs’, it’s as simple as that,” Waller says. “We are proud of where we live, where we work and where we came from.
“He’s like me, we’re never like ‘bloody Aussies’. It’s an honour to be here and to work here. This is where we’ve made our lives and are raising our beautiful families.
“James is a great athlete. If he was playing footy, he would be Alfie Langer or a George Gregan, purely because of his grit.”
McDonald is softly spoken and likes to keep to himself. His daily highlight is spending time with his wife, former jockey Katelyn Mallyon, and their daughters, Evie and Mia.
His younger brother, Luke, describes James as “boring” – his bedroom walls were covered in dairy cows, rather than girls and sports stars.
McDonald was a handy rugby player growing up, and played halfback for a representative Waikato team in the under-45kg division.
All McDonald wanted to do when he started out was make enough money and retire by the time he was 30 so he could buy a dairy farm.
He had ridden his first group 1 winner when he was 16, a horse called Special Mission at Te Aroha, and refused to remove his goggles after the race because he was in tears.
“Now I’m 34, I want to get to 40,” McDonald says. “Actually, if I can get to 45, that would be a lovely number. I still love riding like nothing else.
“Every race day I’ll write on a piece of paper, ‘see it, feel it, win it’ and ‘enjoy’. I don’t know if it works, but I keep doing it.”
The fact McDonald gets to ride Waller’s best horses is a big reason for his success.
Darren Beadman, a champion jockey in his own right who now works for Waller, said what separated McDonald from the rest was his sense of timing in a race.
“On the odd occasion, he rides like Ronald McDonald, but he gets it more right than he does wrong,” Beadman says.
“It’s all to do with his timing. He’s a right-hand whip rider, but when he pulls it through to his left hand, he’s so effective with it, and he can get that extra half-length out of a horse.
“He has the whole straight to pull it through, and he can pull it through at different stages, but he gets that gear change right every time.”
McDonald remains convinced horses find jockeys.
It’s A Dundeel was one of McDonald’s first stars. Romantic Warrior remains his favourite – a picture of the gelding hangs on a wall in McDonald’s home. McDonald won a Melbourne Cup with Verry Elleegant in 2021, while Via Sistina produced a dominant Cox Plate victory in 2024.
However, it was Anamoe, a nine-time group 1 winner, that taught McDonald some of his biggest lessons.
“That horse changed my life,” McDonald recalls. “He was a $50 million stallion, and every time I rode him, I knew I had to get the job done. He taught me how to cope with the pressure of riding a good horse.
“It’s never a fluke – horses find jockeys. I believe that.”
It’s lucky McDonald and Waller found each other.
