James McDonald after winning the Cox Plate on Anamoe.
He looks as though he could easily be the boy from next door. And to some extent you could say that he is, if you count New Zealand as being next door.
And you’d be as just as comfortable and glad if your daughter brought him home and introduced him as her partner and to be the father of your grandchild, which is what Mr and Mrs Brett Mallyon have done.
So, the fact that he’s the most sort after and most successful jockey in Australia, with pin-up qualities and “Glorious” social media plus billboard appeal, rests as easily aside the eminently likeable persona that is James McDonald.
The pressures of riding Australia’s best horses in Australia’s best and richest races, which he did again with Anamoe taking the group I Ladbrokes Cox Plate at The Valley on Saturday, is treated as just as part of the job as is becoming a father in the middle of a hectic Melbourne spring and that race that stops a nation.
Sure, there’s the glamour engagement to former jockey and now Channel 7 horse racing presenter Katelyn Mallyon, who is expecting the couple’s first child, a girl, on the second Tuesday in November but McDonald is as focused and driven on the work to be done on and off the track, as Katelyn knows.
“I said to my obstetrician, ‘James will definitely be at the Melbourne Cup Carnival’ and she said ‘Oh no, he will be with you,’ and I said, ‘No way, we have a mortgage to pay, he will definitely be riding’.” Mallyon told News Limited recently.
James McDonald celebrates after winning the Cox Plate.
And as an aside, that mortgage is a little significant too, despite the jaw dropping earnings figures so early in this season - they have bought what was advertised as “a do-upper” in Vaucluse, where the median price for a house is $8m, but if you want one with Harbour Bridge views that stretch to Manly, then you will pay a little more before well, “doing it up.”
The fact that your horses have won $15.656m in prizemoney this season, (Hugh Bowman is second on the list with $6.552m), and you can work out the five percent wages commission if you like, it might be boggling to the ten-dollar punter, but McDonald is thriving on his job and challenges on and off the track that it all brings.
Measured, mannered, respectful, diligent and prepared, is no boy scout mantra but can perhaps partly explain how McDonald has gotten to, and established a high bar for achievement, that is his new benchmark.
There wouldn’t be a day he doesn’t seek counsel, whether it’s his father figure John O’Shea, the trainer who brought him as an apprentice from New Zealand records to Sydney and stuck by him through his 18-month suspension for the self-admitted ‘silly mistake” of a $1000 bet.
Or engaging with a Darren Beadman or Glen Boss, chasing that one-percent to change an outcome, back a judgement or arming himself with the knowledge that he still chases.
“I have great people to lean on,” says McDonald, who escaped the Valley cauldron on Saturday night to be home with Katelyn in Sydney and prepare for the fortnight ahead, both baby and horses.
“Bossy has been a huge help, he’s been there with Makybe Diva and so many great horses, Dazzler (Beadman), his record speaks for itself and I pick his brains all the time, I never think you can know enough, it’s what I say about crossing the “t’s and dotting the “I’s”, it might be one percent, but I respect the chance to be able to talk with those sort of guys,” McDonald said.
James McDonald is congratulated by Glen Boss after riding Anamoe to win the Cox Plate. Picture: Vince Caligiuri – Getty Images
“And then there’s John (O’Shea), he is always there for me and a great part of my success and support. He’s always got my back.”
“Riding good horses, the pressure comes with that, the cult horses if you like, Hughie was amazing what he went through with Winx, but when I go out I want to be prepared for the occasion and know I am well prepared and if they are good enough on the day and you can cover every scenario or any curve ball in a race, then you give your horse the best chance to win. I think I go ok at that part of it,” said McDonald without even the hint of a boast.
Which is why McDonald sort an ear to Beadman, obviously part of the Godolphin structure, as much as a champion jockey, who went through his own Cox Plates, though beaten in two on Lonhro, which McDonald compares Anamoe too.
“It was probably more about riding the track and the race, but just someone to listen to and take in; of course, I’ve ridden in races like that and won them and know The Valley but it is just giving yourself every bit of knowledge.”
And that preparation extends to routines and superstitions, seemingly so superstitious or “sillily” so, he won’t reveal them.
“It’s a banana for breakfast, I do the scratchings at 7.30am, run through each of my races and tick off the form and what might have changed from what we have worked out, then off to lose a kilo or so that I may have to for the day ahead and then get there settled,” McDonald said.
“I just like to keep everything as simple as I can. I am not on any diet as such, but I know what you put in, you have to get off, but I like to do some sort of physical activity every day, I just keep myself busy and I find that works for me."
“Sunday is my switch off day at home with Katelyn, it’s chill and recovery, but I love being active mentally and physically.”
So despite the headlines and ticking off the Cox Plate, McDonald was able to keep that level-head approach to yet another mighty achievement on an envious and bulging CV that saw him crowned the world’s leading jockey by global rankers Thoroughbred Racing Commentary last season.
James McDonald after Anamoe won the Cox Plate. Picture: Reg Ryan – Racing Photos
“I never knew what winning a Melbourne Cup (on Verry Elleegant) would be such the life changer that it was (and that was a self-promise to achieve on his return from the wilderness of suspension), but the Cox Plate, I grew up watching Greg Childs winning it on Sunline, as I said on the day, it’s a proper horse’s race, the best horses, the championship."
“The Everest (on Nature Strip last year) was something different again, but the Cox Plate, you need the right horse and right trainer and it’s a journey to become the champion,” said McDonald, who now craves a Caufield Cup for Australian racing’s new Grand Slam.
If there was a superstition on Saturday with Anamoe that McDonald was not aware of, is that it was stalled at race day #15, the same as when Sunline won her two for Greg Childs in 1999 and 2000.
McDonald, the son of a horse trainer (Brett), who had no inkling of becoming a jockey, it was rugby (who isn’t an All-Black triallist in New Zealand), or dairy farming, that was his young man’s quest, until a meeting with Brett Prebble came along and his mother Dianne encouraged him on an equestrian path.
“Brett was my thing, my idol, I still remember meeting him (he was 13 and given a whip), to ride against him now is quite amazing, but mum was into show jumping and hunting and that’s how it all started,” he said.
James McDonald compares Anamoe to Lonhro. Picture: Jay Town – Racing Photos
And where will it finish? Well, already the youngest inducted into the New Zealand Racing Hall of Fame at just 27, he is now 30, McDonald, without wishing to engage a cliché, has the world at his feet, but Australia and a Vaucluse home with spectacular views is a good place to leave the shoes, and fatherhood awaits.
“Everything had gone fantastically well with Katelyn and the pregnancy, we are having a girl and the room is ready,” he said.
One thing he can’t plan for is delivery. Nature will intervene there, but as ever, McDonald is prepared.
So, this week entails a return to Melbourne for a two-week stint (with hopefully no false start in Sydney), no race riding, a feel for his Melbourne Cup horse Loft at Werribee tomorrow, trying out a new international Soulcombe on Wednesday, it heading to Chris Waller’s yard, and no doubt the usual professional preparation without fuss in Derby Day and Cup week.
“You have to make the most of this while you can, it’s high stakes, and there is a lot of faith placed in you by owners and trainers and punters, I am out there trying to make the least mistakes,” said McDonald.
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