It’s probably high time that I wrote about something positive! After all, the way the Aquanita thing is looking, there will be a bunch more to be told that will most probably be pretty negative.
So here are couple of good news stories about jockeys – one about the comeback kid, and one about a new apprentice who has taken off like a rocket.
The comeback kid is, obviously, James McDonald. After serving an 18 month disqualification for betting on a horse he rode, he’s now back competing in arguably one of the toughest and most competitive racing jurisdictions on the planet, and he is doing more than competing. At the time of writing, he has claimed 4 winners since his very recent return, at a strike rate of 21%. To see how that stacks up, just compare it with Hugh Bowman’s strike rate over his last 50 rides, which is sitting at 20%, Blake Shinn’s at 12%, Tye Angland at 22%, Kerrin McEvoy at 16% & Brenton Avdulla at 20%. J Mac is back!
It would be easy to say that, yes, he would be doing that well because he gets on good cattle – and he does. But, why is that so?
To put it very simply, he gets the good rides, from the good stables, because he is a very, very good horseman. Watch the video of his first metropolitan comeback ride, and that fact shows. He won on the Chris Waller-trained Cormac, by a half-head, from another Waller-trained horse ridden by Kerrin McEvoy, after a two-horse war over the last 150 metres. McEvoy is a hard nut. He’s difficult to toss in a photo finish, but McDonald was able to do that after 18 months off the scene. It’s rides like that that will soon put any memories of the quite stupid thing that caused him to lose 18 months of his career – and the Godolphin stable gig – into the past. When it all happened, I remember writing something like “James, whatever were you thinking?” But the returned James McDonald really looks like a much more grown up and grounded individual, and that can only be a good thing for his career, and for himself as an individual.
I just hope that he stays as a freelance for a while. It would be good to see him prove his talent, not that he really needs to, on horses from outside the top stables. The really pleasing story he told after his first win back was about him receiving a phone call from Jim Cassidy. Ever the pragmatist, and with a similar indiscretion in his past, Pumper simply told McDonald that “it isn’t broken”. Good advice. Making a silly mistake that cost a lot, didn’t and doesn’t mean that McDonald all of a sudden stopped being a great rider. So, all he needed to realise was that all he needed to do was what he was doing before.
It’s a great start back, it’s great to see him back, and it’s great for racing to have him back.
From a story about a top jockey to a story about a newbie. But what a story!
Out in Western Queensland, the tracks are tough, the horses are tougher, and the riders don’t take prisoners. It’s not an easy place to make a mark as a freshly minted apprentice. But that is exactly what Alisha McDonell has done. She is just 18 years old and is apprenticed to leading bush trainer Todd Austin.
In her first ever race meeting as a licensed jockey – she got the license two days before the meeting – she booted home a treble at Longreach. In fact, the first two rides of her career were both winners. Then she followed that up with a treble at Barcaldine and kept it all going on the next weekend with a lazy seven winners over meetings at Longreach, again, and Charters Towers.
At the time of writing, Alisha has clocked up 14 winners from her first 24 race rides – a strike rate of 58%. Look out Hughie!
I don’t care where she is riding, or who she is riding against. That strike rate is simply unheard of. There will have to be a reality check somewhere down the track, surely, but until then, go girl!
So, with Jamie Kah replacing Claire Lindop as the Number One female jockey in South Australia, Kathy O’Hara leading the feminine charge in New South Wales, Linda Meech braining the jockey’s premiership in Victoria, maybe we’ll see Alisha McDonell heading for Brisbane soon. The days of trainers avoiding women jockeys appear to be over – and that’s a good thing!
By Rob Young