Pat’s red letter day
Taghmon man’s first Group 1 success
PAT (P.J.) McDonald, the 35-yearsold Taghmon-born jockey, had the greatest day of his career in British racing at Newmarket on Friday when he had his first Group 1 success in a dramatic finish to the £567,000 bet365 two-year-old fillies’ mile, and he denied a fellow Wexford man who has trained over 300 Group 1 winners by the smallest possible margin.
McDonald was on 10/1 shot Laurens for Karl Burke, and Aidan O’Brien had two in the race to bid for his 24th Group 1 of the season as he chases down a world record. The two men were born about ten miles and 13 years apart in Taghmon and Poulpeasty respectively, and destiny brought them together on this day.
O’Brien had Group 1 runners in three continents over three days, in Britain, Australia and Canada, and came within inches of erasing Bobby Frankel’s world record 25 Group 1s in a calendar year, losing races by a nose and a short head.
McDonald had Laurens towards the front all the way in Friday’s thriller and he kicked for home inside the final two furlongs. However, O’Brien’s September (9/2) eventually got into the clear under Seamie Heffernan and she flew at the end, and the two of them flashed across the line together. Laurens and McDonald were called the winners by a nose.
A delighted McDonald told ITV Racing’s Rishi Persad: ‘I honestly can’t believe it. I’m 35 years of age now and the relief when my number got called out was amazing. If I never do anything else in my career, I’ve ridden a Group 1 winner. I didn’t have a clue whether we’d won. I was praying we had it, but I didn’t know…it’s brilliant.’
When he went across to Britain first it was as a jumps jockey for another Wexford native, Ferdy Murphy, and he won the Scottish Grand National for him ten years ago on Hot Weld.
Murphy, now operating in France, said of McDonald in the Yorkshire Post last year: ‘He was a brilliant grafter in the yard, a brilliant team player. Anybody who can win a Scottish National as a conditional, and beat Graham Lee in the finish, has ability’. The Taghmon man made a successful switch to the flat after that and from his home base at Leyburn in North Yorkshire he has ridden over 640 winners in those ten years. This has been his best calendar year to date with 96 winners (and over £1.5 million in prize money), and he looks set to break the one hundred winner landmark for the first time.
Pat is more often known as P.J. in Britain. He is a Liverpool fan, married to Abby, and they have two young daughters, Amelia and Lavinia.
O’Brien’s Johannes Vermeer (30/1) was unluckily beaten by inches in Caulfield, Australia, in the Group 1 Ladbrokes Stakes, under 23-years-old local girl, Katelyn Mallyon.
But you can’t keep O’Brien down for long. The Group 1 Darley Dewhurst Stakes at Newmarket is regarded as the premier twoyear-old race of the year and a highly-regarded trial for next year’s classics.
O’Brien ran four of nine in it on Saturday and filled the first four places in a real demonstration of Ballydoyle and Coolmore dominance. US Navy Flag (5/1) was an all-the-way winner for Ryan Moore and became the first horse for 35 years to win the two big two-yearold races, The Middlepark and the Dewhurst. He was followed in by Mendelssohn (50/1), Seahenge (9/1) and Threeandfourpence (20/1).
O’Brien also won the opening Zetland Stakes for the first time with Kew Gardens (13/8f), with McDonald second on Mark Johnston’s Dee Ex Bee (7/2).
McDonald was also second in the Group 3 Autumn Stakes on Johnston’s Dream Today (10/1), behind Charlie Appleby’s Ghaiyyath (11/4), but he had a great win in the Darley seven-furlong nursery on the Johnston outsider, Rufus King (16/1).
O’Brien and Ryan Moore travelled to Woodbine in Canada for two more Group 1s on Sunday night our time, but Rain Goddess and Idaho never got in a blow.
Earlier in the week McDonald had kept up his steady stream of ‘bread and butter’ winners, usually at very good prices.
He won on Katabatika (14/1) at Kempton on Monday; Fool for You (7/2) at Catterick, and Landing Night (10/1) at Kempton, both on Tuesday; Chinese Spirit (6/1) at Ayr on Thursday, and he ended with Teofonic (3/1) for Johnston in a £25,000 handicap at Goodwood on Sunday.
Over the jumps, Tom O’Brien had an odds-on romp at Ludlow on Wednesday on The Statesman (4/7f), and on Thursday he won a tight finish on Master Work (13/2) at Ayr.
Daryl Jacob went to Newton Abbot on Friday for one spin on an outsider and gave a brilliant ride on Beer Goggles (16/1) to nurse him home by less than a length in a £25,000 hurdle.
In Ireland this week, Seán Flanagan had a double for Noel Meade at Galway on Tuesday on The Rory Story (8/1) and A Genie in a Bottle (6/4), and another one on Sunday at Cork on Moyross (7/4) for Meade, beating a Ruby Walsh and Willie Millins favourite, Minella Beau, and on Broder (4/1f) for John J. Walsh.
A couple of days’ suspension later in the week cost him a couple of winners. One of them went to Jonathan Moore at Downpatrick on Friday, on hotshot Joey Sasa (4/7).
Earlier J.J. Slevin was a length second on Colin Bowe’s Tranquil Magic (4/1), behind the Jackie Bolger-owned Alterno (14/1).
A day earlier at Thurles, Slevin gave a great ride to Joseph O’Brien’s Apparition (5/4) to get back up by a nose despite a mistake at the last hurdle. Pat Cloke’s Bellgrove (7/1) stayed on really well to take second in a chase under Davy Russell behind Grey Mountain.
Young J.P. O’Sullivan from Ballydaniel, Camolin, had his fifth win of the season at Cork on Sunday on Be Rude Not To (14/1) for P.J. Rothwell, Tinahely, seeing off the favourite.
On the flat, Jim Bolger and Kevin Manning had a good priced double at Gowran Park on Wednesday with Cimeara (10/1) and Haunting Vocals (9/1), and they won the big one at Dundalk on Friday night, the €45,000 listed stakes, with Goldrush (3/1f) in a blanket finish.
Aidan O’Brien found time in a hectic week to win with Saracen Knight (1/2) at Gowran and the Coolmore Ruler of the World maiden at Cork on Saturday with Kenya (8/11), under E.J. McNamara. He and Bolger had a winner each at Naas on Sunday, Dramatically (4/1) for O’Brien and Mearu (4/1) for Bolger.