McDonald shows class at Ellerslie
Top jockey wins both Karaka Millions races
I am lucky to ride all over the world and ride great horses but I was nervous coming here today. James McDonald
What punters saw from Kaipaki-born James McDonald at Ellerslie on Saturday was worldclass jockey brilliance. What they didn’t see were the nerves bubbling under the surface.
McDonald added two more sensational fillies to his glamour girls list when first Velocious, then Orchestral destroyed their rivals in their TAB Karaka Millions races.
Velocious was brilliant in the $1 million juvenile but it was Orchestral that earned star of the show honours with an off-the-pace stunner in the $1.5m 3-year-old race.
She was buried back on the inner but McDonald the Magician found gaps without covering extra ground and the filly — whose ceiling has yet to be found — raised the roof off the Ellerslie stands.
It was as good as horsemanship as you will see anywhere in the world, admittedly with the equine firepower to execute it on.
Make no mistake, these are good fillies — maybe Orchestral will be a great one in time for trainers Roger James and Robert Wellwood, who were going back-to-back in the 3-yearold after Prowess last year.
They have had to be patient when Orchestral’s spring started disastrously, then re-hone her for our richest race. It was wonderful training.
But when the band started up for the after-party, there was only one name on punters’ lips. McDonald is like a Brazilian football star, so famous in racing he goes by one name: Jmac.
Jmac has won some of the greatest races in the world: the Melbourne Cup, The Everest, The Kings Stand at Royal Ascot and winning $1m races is a near-fortnightly experience for him.
But this was different.
“I never get more nervous than when I ride at Ellerslie,” said the man who is sought after around the world.
“This is home. This was my home track and when I come here, it still feels like headquarters.
“My friends are here, Mum is here, I’m back here in front of some of the people who helped make me the jockey I am.
“I am lucky to ride all over the world and ride great horses but I was nervous coming here today.
“So this means a lot and you have to have the horsepower to do it.”
McDonald says Orchestral could be elite, being so untapped and with an array of options.
Co-trainer Wellwood suggested she breathes well enough to get a Derby or Oaks trip so he and James have some decisions to make.
If they aim her at the Trackside Derby at Ellerslie on March 2, she will automatically go to the top of the markets.
“And that would give her the option to maybe go to Sydney for a Group 1 like the Vinery.
“But we don’t need to worry about that right now. We are going to enjoy this feeling, which is pretty surreal.”
In between the Jmac double for the ages was Desert Lightning winning the first running of the $1m Elsdon Park Aotearoa Classic for the 4-year-olds.
He used such sustained speed from a wide draw to put a gap on hot favourite Legarto that she couldn’t make it up, as brave as she was.
It was the richest win in the career of astute trainers Peter and Dawn Williams and a wonderful ride from veteran Vinnie Colgan.
Already a Group 1 winner, Desert Lightning moves into the ranks of our best current horses.
Jmac? Well, he has already moved on to the list alongside the greatest to ever sit on a horse.