Leading by example
McDonald fills major role off track
TAGHMON-BORN jockey P.J. McDonald (aged 38), from Monastery Avenue, has been president of the Professional Jockeys’ Association (flat riders’ section) in Britain since 2018.
And he has urged his weighroom colleagues to ‘do the right thing’ in redoubling efforts to keep race meetings going during the Covid-19 pandemic.
McDonald described his fellow jockeys as being committed to following strict protocols because they ‘know a lot of the responsibility lies with us’. Jumps veteran, Richard Johnson, is president of the National Hunt section.
Throughout the pandemic, racing has stressed to government its crucial importance to the rural economy, and the stringent security measures in place on racecourses to prevent the spread of the virus. Much the same case has been successfully made here in Ireland, though the point-topoint wing was suddenly axed last Thursday.
He told the ‘Racing Post’ last week that as the most visible human participants in racing, jockeys owed it to themselves and the rest of the industry to keep the sport as safe as possible.
‘There’s a lot of people’s livelihoods at stake at the minute in tough enough times. The least we can do is abide by the rules put in place and to implement them as best we can.
‘In racing everybody doesn’t always sing off the same hymn sheet but with this pandemic, I think everybody realises how important it is for all of us to do our part for an industry that we all make a living out of. I think that’s the main reason that, touch wood, everything is running so smoothly at the minute.
‘There’s no point in me being careful and being one hundred per cent in doing everything right, if other lads are not doing it. Everybody has to pull together and they’ve been brilliant.’
P.J. McDonald was born in 1982; he has risen to the top of the sport in Britain after overcoming a very shaky start for the first five years.
He began his riding career with Dusty Sheehy and then over jumps in point-to-point with legendary Wexford trainer, Padge Berry, before moving on to Charles Byrnes in Limerick.
He found the early going tough and had only three winners from his first 70 track rides in Ireland and was seriously thinking of quitting.
He decided to try his luck in Britain and he joined the National Hunt stable of fellow Wexfordman, Ferdy Murphy, in 2005. He had just one winner in his first two years from 34 rides before winning the Scottish Grand National for Murphy on Hot Weld in 2007.
Murphy steered McDonald towards a career on the flat and since 2007 he has ridden almost 1,000 winners, travelling huge mileage from his north of England base.
He broke the century mark in 2017 with his seasonal best total of 128. He exceeded the ‘ton’ in the next two years also, earning over £5m in prize money over those three seasons.
He cut back a bit on his massive mileage last year but still picked up 72 winners and over £800,000 in prize money.
His most successful association was with the mare, Laurens, trained by Karl Burke, on which he won three Group 1 races in 2017 and ’18, and missed out on a couple more because of injury. Havana Grey and Invincible were other big winners for him.
Hard work and dedication have seen McDonald carve out a very good career after his humble beginnings, and his position as PJA flat riders’ President is testament to the respect in which the Taghmon man is held by his peers.
He is married to Abby, whom he met all those years ago at Ferdy Murphy’s, and they have three daughters. They live at Leybourne in North Yorkshire.