ME and my MONEY

CHAMPION jockey PJ McDonald started out as a stablehand, unable to ride and earning just £20 a week.

He can now earn nearly £17,000 in just 80 seconds on the racecourse – as long as, he says, he has the ‘right horse’ underneath him. Yesterday, he rode two horses at Ascot on British Champions Day.

McDonald, a former jump jockey, is the flat president of the Professional Jockeys Association and an ambassador for QIPCO British Champions Day.

He always knew he wanted to work with horses and left school at 14 to pursue his dream.

He regularly works 15-hour days to be able to race, earning millions of pounds for the owners of the horses he rides.

Now 36, he lives with wife Abigail, 30, and daughters Amelia, four, and two-year-old Lavinia, in North Yorkshire.