Champion jockey James McDonald is in the zone and everyone can see it, from his sit in the saddle to the results he has produced in the first couple of months of the season.
McDonald has ridden 32 winners in August and September, which has included a careless suspension, and is on pace to break the record 164 city winners Darren Beadman rode in 2006-7.
James McDonald grins through the mud after winning the Champagne Stakes on Broadsiding.Credit: Getty
“When you are riding like James is at the moment, it’s like driving from the SCG to Rosehill and getting every green light,” Beadman said. “Every move you make is right, every decision on what you will ride seems to be right.
“It’s a great feeling, and you just get so confident when you’re in the zone.”
McDonald has had a winner every three rides this season, and winning doubles, trebles and even four-timers have become a regular occurrence.
He has won more than a quarter of the races run in Sydney this season, but the competitive beast in McDonald looks at the zero that sits in the group 1 column for season 2024-25 and wants that to change.
“I have the mouthguard in and I’m pretty focused,” McDonald said. “I’m riding in every race I can possibly ride in; that helps. I felt last season I had a lot of time off with six weeks in Hong Kong, two injuries and being sick.
“It was a disjointed season even though I had 98 winners and won the premiership, but it has me fresher to start this year. I’m just enthusiastic.”
McDonald has connections with the biggest stables. The 14-time champion trainer Chris Waller supplies the bulk of his winners, but it will be a star colt from global powerhouse Godolphin, Broadsiding, that could give him a first group 1 of the season in the Golden Rose at Rosehill on Saturday.
“I know it will come but I want it to come quicker,” McDonald said of the group 1 victory. “He is the right colt.
Broadsiding charges to the front in the Fernhill Handicap at Randwick earlier this year.Credit: Getty
“I just want to ride winners – that’s the mindset. Be it Canterbury on Wednesday or Golden Rose, I just want to win.”
That is the reason why Waller likes to have McDonald on call and is disappointed not to have him on Emirate in the Golden Rose.
“Winning is everything to him,” Waller said. “He can tell you more about horses in every race than you know, and, added to that he is a horseman and pretty good athlete as well. It’s a great mix.
“He has just matured and you can see he is happy with [wife] Katelyn and the kids, and that gives him an even better balance away from the track and has taken him to another level on it.”
The James Cummings-trained Broadsiding could give McDonald a third Golden Rose. He has already won the Champagne Stakes and JJ Atkins on at group 1 level on the $3.30 Rose favourite.
Broadsiding is trying to become the first horse to win a Golden Rose first up from a spell, but McDonald points out that the Too Darn Hot colt has already broken norms.
“I didn’t think he would have gone to Brisbane after winning the Champagne Stakes, but this colt was thriving,” McDonald said.
“After he won the Fernhill [Handicap], he was the perfect horse to back up seven days later because he was like a footballer at half-time, he just wanted and needed to get back out there and loved the pressure.
“He went to Brisbane and went to another level when it would be too much for most two-year-olds.
“I have waiting for him to come back.”
McDonald has 98 group 1 wins and can sniff a special spring with Broadsiding.
“James is glowing reports on him. When James starts to talk slowly and throwing in big words that I don’t understand, I get more excited,” McDonald said.
“He trialled beautifully twice over the 1000m and carries residual fitness from the winter.
“If you look at him when he won in the Fernhill and when he trialled this time in, he is just a bigger version of himself and he knows how good he is now.
“He has got power to burn, which everyone will see on Saturday.”
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