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By Brad Gray

At just 29, champion jockey James McDonald has ridden 52 Group One winners and is the fastest jockey to reach the half century.

James McDonald recently became the youngest person inducted into the New Zealand Racing Hall of Fame and is chasing down his fifth Sydney jockeys’ premiership having ridden over 100 metropolitan Sydney winners in three successive seasons.

JMcDonald holds the Chipping Norton trophy after guiding Verry Elleegant to victory (Pic: Bradley Photos)

A feat only previously matched by Larry Cassidy and Darren Beadman.

Speaking to McDonald, however, you don’t get the impression you’re chatting to one of the world’s most elite athletes. It’s testament to his humble beginnings.

And if he wasn’t a jockey, he says he’d probably be a dairy farmer.

“I don’t like the sound of being a dairy farmer anymore though,” laughed McDonald.

“My family have dairy farms in New Zealand and as a kid I’d stay with my uncle on his farm in the Waikato.

“Dad was a trainer and mum rode horses, but I didn’t pursue anything until I was 10 or 11. Mum got me a pony and away I went from there.

“When I was only five or six I asked Dad’s training partner Alan Jones how I’m going to afford a dairy farm and he said ‘there is only one option for you son and that’s to start riding horses, ride enough winners, buy your dairy farm and away you’d go’.”

Having achieved so much within just a decade of riding, after John O’Shea coaxed him over to Sydney from New Zealand as an unknown 19-year-old, McDonald’s desire still burns as bright as ever.

It’s largely thought to be what sets him apart. An insatiable appetite for success.

“Winning becomes an addiction, it does absolutely, without a doubt,” said McDonald.

“I’m still hungry for success but I’ve always been pretty driven, I’ve always wanted to win.

“I don’t know what it is, but I love winning, the thrill of winning and there’s no settling for second; I love competition against the other jockeys.

McDonald and Nature Strip have become a formidable team (Pic: Steve Hart)

“I just get out there and strive to be a bit better than the season before. We’re all chasing the next good horse.

“I am very comfortable at the moment, if it’s still going well I’ll be staying put where I am that’s for sure, I love riding good colts, love riding horses and I’ll just keep focused on that.”

His eagerness to compete also comes back to his temperament. McDonald is the first to admit that his attention span isn’t one of his strengths.

“I keep very fit, if I can walk anywhere I will, I keep pretty motivated,” he said.

“I can’t keep still; I don’t watch much TV which frustrates (partner) Katelyn (Mallyon) because I can’t sit down to watch a movie.

“I get along with Katelyn really well because she shares the same level of ambition, to be as good as we can be.

“I never thought I’d achieved what I have over the past few years or be lucky enough to be inducted into the New Zealand Hall of Fame, those things you don’t even dream of.

It comes back to the start though; you are competing to ride a winner. It’s the key to Gosford, Wyong or Randwick, when the job is there to ride a winner.

“If I come home from any track without having ridden a winner Katelyn will be the first to tell you that I come home grumpy.”

A keen golfer, McDonald, who plays off a 16 handicap, with the street corner tip that he is a little better than that, will often head off for a round with fellow hoop Hugh Bowman.

Fan favourite McDonald after the Wyong Cup (Pic: Steve Hart)

“Hughie is as competitive as me and we play a lot of golf together so even without racing there’s competition in my life,” he said.

“I’m just competitive in everything I do, it might hold me back a little bit but I’m not too sure. I play a lot of squash too.”

McDonald, a bright eyed, well-mannered kid from Cambridge, had the world at his feet as such a young age, so if he could go back and offer one piece of advice to his teenage self, what would it be?

“Good question,” replied McDonald, carefully choosing his words.

“I would say to myself to let things unfold, we are all guilty of trying too hard sometimes. Just go with the flow and don’t put too much pressure or expectation on yourself.

“That’s where things can unravel a little and you make more mistakes. I’m guilty of trying a little too hard in big races, so just go out there and enjoy it.

“Yes, you are in control of your own destiny but sometimes you can overdo it. It is what it is at the end of the day.

“In saying that you have to still apply yourself and work as hard as you can.”

*This article was originally published in the June edition of the Racing NSW magazine.