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JAMES McDONALD, AUTUMN BOY \/ G1 Rosehill Guineas \/\/ Rosehill \/\/\/ 2026 \/\/\/\/ Jeremy Ng (Getty Images)<\/p>\nHere, as the final race of a history-making day is about to jump, one of the most overworked men on the racecourse has finally slumped down in the corner of the jockeys\u2019 room.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s sitting in James McDonald\u2019s seat. The bench behind him is filled with riding gear, clothes, a form guide from Sydney\u2019s tabloid newspaper and a few sheets of paper with predicted speed maps. Unsurprisingly, they correctly predicted the future. There are riding goggles, lots of them, because McDonald can go through a packet of six during one meeting. If one has a tiny mark or scratch, he has to replace it.<\/p>\n
The only reason the day might seem a little out of the ordinary is the three trophies stuffed in his corner and a celebratory chocolate cake sitting on a trolley. It\u2019s waiting to be eaten after every rider has made their last weight for the day.<\/p>\n
McDonald has already worked his body to near breaking point. He\u2019s given permission by stewards to ride his last mount, More Territories, a kilogram over its allotted weight. Horse and rider scout so wide down the Rosehill straight you would be forgiven for thinking it was a lap of honour where the jockey high fives punters on the fence. More Territories, a middling mare at stakes level with just two career wins, beats three runners home. Never mind.<\/p>\n
In the minutes leading up to the race, the same overworked man saw why James McDonald is so good.<\/p>\n
\u201cI said to (another jockey) Dylan Gibbons, \u2018look at him. What\u2019s he just done? Won three Group 1s and look at him, he\u2019s sitting here doing the form\u2019,\u201d says McDonald\u2019s longtime valet Chris Barrett. \u201cHe\u2019s just a professional.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of guys will just look at the replays over and over again (after each race). Not him. He might look at them once. He\u2019s got his head straight into the paper and doing the form for the next race. He just studies up.\u201d<\/p>\n
You didn\u2019t have to study much to realise Saturday was going to be McDonald\u2019s day, when he would be feted for coming back through Rosehill\u2019s golden arch as arguably the best to ever do it.<\/p>\n
Needing two wins to surpass the great Damien Oliver (129) as the most prolific Group 1-winning jockey in Australian racing history, McDonald did it in style at Sydney\u2019s Golden Slipper meeting, urging Aeliana ($1.6) to victory in the Ranvet Stakes before following it up with a masterclass on Autumn Boy ($2.45) in the Rosehill Guineas.<\/p>\n
And they were prior to the new queen of Australian racing, Autumn Glow ($1.28), demolishing her \u2018rivals\u2019 in the George Ryder Stakes to be unbeaten in 11 starts. Winx might not have done it better, to which there can be no higher compliment.<\/p>\n
Oliver had also set a new mark in Sydney, surpassing George Moore, just a few years ago. It was so understated, and so surprising after he scored on longshot Nimalee in the Queen Of The Turf, some weren\u2019t even sure if he\u2019d actually broken the mark. Australian racing\u2019s record keeping has always been a bit of an embarrassment for a long time, and Oliver was fighting in the shadows of his own post to get there. He probably knew he would only be holding the torch for a while until a kid from a dairy farm in the north of New Zealand surged past him.<\/p>\n
But everyone was ready for this day.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was more stressed out than him, to the point where I had to leave the house every day just so I didn\u2019t put anything more onto him,\u201d says McDonald\u2019s wife Katelyn, a former Group 1-winning rider herself who stops to chat to Idol Horse after finishing her television duties where she analyses her husband\u2019s races.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut it was just like another day in the office for him. There never felt like there was any more tension or any more stress in the air.\u201d<\/p>\n
JAMES McDONALD, AUTUMN BOY \/ G1 Rosehill Guineas \/\/ Rosehill \/\/\/ 2026 \/\/\/\/ Jeremy Ng (Getty Images)<\/p>\n
McDonald started the day writing a message to himself on a piece of paper.<\/p>\n
See it. Feel it. Win it.<\/p>\n
All Blacks legend Steve Hansen, who was a part-owner in one of McDonald\u2019s greatest horses, Nature Strip, sent him a text message on race morning. He told him to walk straight into his shot at history and grab it with both hands.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was thinking to myself, imagine him sitting down with the All Blacks, a fifteen squad of men, our greatest sport in New Zealand, and he\u2019s saying, \u2018walk into it, embrace it\u2019,\u201d McDonald says. \u201cI thought that was quite special because it took me back a little bit.\u201d<\/p>\n
You have to go back a long way to figure out what makes McDonald tick.<\/p>\n
Given James was riding and Katelyn was working, McDonald\u2019s mother Dianne was on child-minding duties for most of the day, cradling her two grandkids, Evie and Mia.<\/p>\n
So, did she ever think this day would be possible?<\/p>\n
\u201cNot in a million years,\u201d she says. \u201cBut we should have realised when he was such a good, little talented rugby player. Yet we never thought he\u2019d get to where he was. I was hoping he would ride out his claim. That was my big hope.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat makes him so special? I\u2019ve said it before, it\u2019s his ability to handle pressure, which he obviously didn\u2019t get from me. The top two inches make the difference having the confidence to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n
No two horses are ever exactly the same, and neither is any race, and to watch McDonald be so precise in each of his winning rides was to watch a surgeon with a scalpel at the operating table.<\/p>\n
Maybe the first was the best. The 34-year-old had to cajole Aeliana from fourth in running to mow down stablemate Lindermann in a fascinating five-horse Ranvet Stakes. Nash Rawiller had led them up on Lindermann and near-dropped anchor, his tempo as slow as his drawl. As Aeliana slowly inched into the margin down the straight, she suddenly found a tiny little extra gear, enough to win by a short neck.<\/p>\n
\u201cSee how he pulled the whip through to the left hand at the 200-metre mark,\u201d Barrett whispers as he waits to collect McDonald\u2019s gear at scale.<\/p>\n
He was right. Like a magician, McDonald flicked the persuader through to Aeliana\u2019s near side and gave her a light tap. She suddenly started gaining ground at a quicker rate. Denise Martin from Star Thoroughbreds, who races Aeliana, turns to a fellow supporter.<\/p>\n
\u201cThank goodness we had the rider.\u201d<\/p>\n
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JAMES McDONALD \/ Rosehill \/\/ 2026 \/\/\/ Photo by Jason McCawley (Getty Images)<\/p>\n
As a hype man employed by the Australian Turf Club whips up the crowd at McDonald equalling the record, the jockey shoots him a strange glance as he comes back to the waiting throng. The club had sounded out McDonald\u2019s manager about the potential celebration. \u201cHe\u2019d like to keep it low key,\u201d was the message.<\/p>\n
By the time he held the record outright after winning on Autumn Boy, a classic stalking ride in which he swept past favourite Observer 35 minutes later, McDonald was giving the thumbs up to the same MC.<\/p>\n
By the time he slips back into the mounting yard for Autumn Glow\u2019s race, the mare\u2019s owner John Messara asks: what are you going to do? McDonald just shrugs. He says, with a mare so good, he\u2019ll figure it out on the track. It\u2019s sensible logic. She could have carried Ronald McDonald to win, so dominant has she become. Waller even drops the \u2018C\u2019 word: champion.<\/p>\n
\u201cRomantic Warrior is my boy, but she\u2019s my girl,\u201d McDonald gushes.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
And as good as Autumn Glow was and is, it\u2019s hard to think this has been anything but McDonald\u2019s day, a \u201cperfect modern jockey\u201d as Waller describes him, with a brain for any occasion.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe all know he\u2019s got natural ability,\u201d says McDonald\u2019s manager Mark Guest. \u201cBut it\u2019s the other things you don\u2019t see.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe watches races non-stop. He even watches the yearling sales. The trials might come out and we\u2019ll go through them, and I might mention a horse. He\u2019ll say, \u2018this horse is by so and so\u2019. It\u2019s freakish. Horse racing consumes his whole life.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know for sure, but I reckon he would feel that makes him the jockey he is by doing all those different things and watching races non-stop every day. Some jockeys want to relax and get away from it. It\u2019s rare that he wants to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Says Katelyn: \u201cHe never stops. Ever. Even on holidays he\u2019s always trying to focus on finding the next big horse, either here in Australia or in Hong Kong. It\u2019s a credit to him. I don\u2019t know how he doesn\u2019t go insane.\u201d<\/p>\n
On a recent trip to the Hunter Valley to inspect yearlings, Waller even had McDonald in tow, looking to keep busy during a suspension.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe knew more about the yearlings than us,\u201d Waller joked. \u201cHe knew about their mums, what their dads had done and he\u2019s an amazing athlete. I\u2019m sure if he was a footy player he\u2019d be an Alfie Langer or someone great. He\u2019s just an elite sportsman.\u201d<\/p>\n
Elite sportsmen are always finding another mountain to climb, and now he\u2019s top of the pops in Australia, McDonald wants more. Ryan Moore has already crashed through the 200-barrier for Group 1 wins. Can McDonald catch him?<\/p>\n
\u201cToday is great, but he will be looking for bigger things and probably trying to chase down Ryan Moore, which is a long way to go,\u201d Katelyn says. \u201cThat\u2019s him. He\u2019s tense. He wants to win every race. It doesn\u2019t matter if it\u2019s a Group 1 or during the week. He\u2019s so competitive and so driven.\u201d \u220e<\/p>\n
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Michael Cox<\/p>\n
\u2018If You Retire, I Retire\u2019: Danny Shum, Romantic Warrior, And The Bond That Almost Broke Him<\/p>\n
![\"Zac](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/purtonfamily1-e1719899504768-1024x521.jpg\")
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