MATE v MATE
FIVE years ago Hugh Bowman was sitting in a sauna in Auckland.
Sydney’s champion jockey was the gala visiting jock for the Karaka Millions meeting the next day.
Next to him was a kid Bowman didn’t know but knew a bit about.
James McDonald was into his second season of senior riding but had a New Zealand premiership under his belt and another coming.
Both were “big” jockeys. It w was the middle of January but both needed steam.
“We started chatting and he came across as a very levelheaded young man,” Bowman recalled.
“I told him he’d be the best ever jockey that never left New Zealand if he stayed there but what would be the point of that?’’
McDonald still remembers that conversation.
“I was going pretty well back home. He said to me, ‘You’ve got to go to Oz. You don’t want to be a big fish in a small pond. Go over there, see how good you really are’.’’
McDonald copped the tip soon after. Sauna buddies became besties. In today’s Cox Plate, McDonald, who rides Hartnell, and Bowman, who is on Winx, will be frenemies.
Bowman was McDonald’s childhood idol.
When McDonald made the leap four years ago, encouraged by Bowman, employed by John O’Shea, he moved to Coogee, a five-minute stroll from the Bowmans. McDonald was 12 years younger than his idol. He is now 24, Bowman 36.
McDonald is single and “in the prime of his life if you know what I mean,’’ Bowman said with an invisible wink.
Bowman is a proud dad of two youngsters.
McDonald used to appear at the Bowmans about dinner time most nights, and still does.
The two men who have slogged it out so often on Sydney’s racetracks for the past two years, as the two best jockeys, are the two closest.
“We do most things together. I’m with him almost every day,’’ McDonald said.
“We train at the gym together, swim at Coogee, do the coastal cliff walk. I go to his place a lot. His wife Christine is very welcoming.’’
Bowman respects McDon- ald on track because he is a ferocious competitor.
He likes him off track because “I dunno, same values maybe. We both grew up in rural sort of areas and have that background in common. He’s got a good sense of humour, doesn’t suffer fools.’’
McDonald was once starstruck by Bowman and, in some ways, remains so.
“When I was a kid he was one of my idols. He was the best in the business, he’s still the benchmark,” he said.
“He’s the one I wanted to emulate, the way he went about it. He does everything with ease.’’
Bowman will attempt to take a clear mind into the biggest race in the careers of McDonald, Hartnell’s trainer O’Shea and Winx trainer Chris Waller, and himself.
McDonald will do the same. Simple is good.
Bowman was already a biggame player when he sat alongside McDonald in that steam room in Auckland. Neither jockey, however, has ridden in a race of such hype.
“I just want a level playing field. Want each horse to get their chance,’’ McDonald said.
“I hope it lives up to the hype. My horse has a lot of attributes to win a Cox Plate. He has tactical speed, sustained stamina. Winx has the same.
“This has been my childhood dream and I think Hugh would say the same.’’
Bowman said he always helped his younger mate – bar occasions like this. “Yeah, I’m always happy to give him advice when I can – emphasis on when I can. Saturday, he’s on his own,’’ he said.