James McDonald is on track to be the greatest Group 1 jockey in history but he has learned how to manage the pressure of expectation. He tells Matt Stewart how he stays in the moment and leans on those who matter to help him stay grounded.
The greatest poker face belongs not to the poker player, but the jockey.
There can be no sign of doubt or weakness in the pre-parade. Rivals seize on it. A former great heavyweight rider once said "you could smell it” when someone in the room was clamming up and over-thinking.
Jockeys wear bright livery with targets on their backs. They carry the weight of money and expectation while trying not to get killed. On the racetrack the jockey had always been the target of rage, both hero and villain, the fall guy.
In Kentucky last year a mental health symposium followed the tragic death of two jockeys who had succumbed to myriads of pressure.
This was an extreme situation and not reflective of the story of most. But it provided an insight into those who compete in the world’s most volatile and dangerous sport.
Jockey Trevor McCarthy pleaded: “We take a lot of beatings mentally and physically. With the mental and physical state, when you mix both of them together, it can be a recipe for disaster.”
Four years ago, James Winks retired from riding and decided to coach others. He now has 12 jockeys on his books. He offers tactical advice and a shoulder.
“Some need a push, some need a cuddle. Racing is very suffocating. It is too easy for jockeys to get caught up in their failings,” Winks said.
The tragic events in the US relate in no way to the life and career of James McDonald, an adrenalin junkie who feels extremely comfortable in his own skin, particularly when it’s just him and the horse.
But even the most imperious jockeys need support. Doubt is not weakness, but something to be laid bare.
“Some need a push, some need a cuddle. Racing is very suffocating. It is too easy for jockeys to get caught up in their failings." - James Winks
McDonald is the world’s greatest jockey, smashing records and riding champions all over the planet. He rarely gets it wrong. Punters have sublime faith in McDonald which means he must have the same faith in himself. He’s human. It’s not always easy.
McDonald copped a major suspension at Sha Tin last Sunday. He will cool his heels and miss the Magic Millions on the Gold Coast. He can reflect on what has already been one of the most successful seasons for any jockey, anywhere.
McDonald says that being on a horse is his “happy place”, the zone where he blocks out heaving expectations.
During last week’s international festival in Hong Kong, he was asked about the pressure of riding so many champions.
Like all great poker faces, McDonald did not reveal too much about coping mechanisms but said that he’d ridden “probably six” champions and each carried huge expectation.
The Straight spoke to McDonald last Wednesday afternoon. He was on the treadmill in his Hong Kong hotel, stripping that last half a kilogram. The Happy Valley meeting that night was so-so but McDonald said he “couldn’t wait.”
This revealed one of McDonald’s secrets. Every ride means something. It means his focus and his confidence is rarely broken, leaving little room to second guess himself.
Funnily enough, he failed to ride a winner that night.
Four days earlier, McDonald had ridden the legendary Romantic Warrior to his third win in the Hong Kong Cup. A few weeks before that, McDonald cut a swathe through Cup Week at Flemington. His 11 victories included Via Sistina in the Champions Stakes, a fortnight after she and McDonald won the Cox Plate by eight lengths.
Before Via Sistina, there had been Verry Elleegant, Anamoe, Nature Strip, Hartnell, Dundeel and others.
Glen Boss used to stare himself down to get motivated. He admits he fell apart in the jockeys’ room before the 2005 Cox Plate. He was nervous and nauseous. Makybe Diva was a raging favourite. Boss stared into the mirror and didn’t like what he saw. He walked away and walked back. The killer glint appeared at the deathknock.
McDonald does not have the theatrical extremes of Boss, nor did Damien Oliver. Asked this week about the pressure of riding champions, Ollie said: “Rather have been riding a champion than a slow one. I never felt it (the pressure).”
McDonald said he “won’t name names” but confirmed he had a strong support network.
“Not counselling as such, I wouldn’t say that. But I have spoken to people mostly out of the industry, some exceptional athletes, and picked their brains,” he said. “It’s my business and it’s not even something I want to discuss much but it helps.”
McDonald is good mates with Hugh Bowman. J Mac has ridden half a dozen champions, Bowman rode Winx.
“You want to learn about pressure? Winx. Yeah, we’ve spoken about what that pressure was all about. When you’re riding the best horses, you are a marked man. Hughie went through it as have all the great riders,” McDonald said.
McDonald keeps his allies to himself but is happy to name three great influencers; Bowman, trainer John O’Shea and legendary New Zealand breeder Sir Peter Vela.
Vela gave McDonald his first break. McDonald was 16 and Vela nominated the kid to ride his horses. O’Shea was the first Aussie trainer to twig to McDonald’s talent and brought him to Sydney a decade ago. When O’Shea was given the ticket to train the Godolphin blue army, McDonald came with him.
“I wouldn’t have been brave enough to come to Australia without John O’Shea,” McDonald said. “He was a father figure to me, a second father. I ring him any time about anything. He knows when to push, when to pull back.”
McDonald was milking cows on the family farm when he first met Vela.
“I was 13 or 14 I reckon,” he said. “He’s another guy I speak to on a regular basis. We talk about everything. He’s a fantastic sounding board. A bit like John; knows when to push, knows when to pull back.”
"He was a father figure to me, a second father. I ring him any time about anything. He knows when to push, when to pull back," James McDonald on John O'Shea
McDonald has learned to shut out negative noise. He accepts that often dull commitments come with the superstar territory. He “does” media but only on his terms. He controls the controllables.
“Being on the horse is where I can simply relax. I don’t really enjoy the other stuff,” he said.
Animals had always provided McDonald with comfort. Jamie Kah is the same. As a small girl Kah’s parents would sometimes find her in the barn cuddling baby goats and sheep.
It wasn’t quite that extreme for McDonald, but he finds his peace in similar places.
“I grew up on a dairy farm. I’d always been happy around the animals,” he said. “They’re like a trigger for me to relax.”
The furnace had been applied to McDonald by the time he was 21. Dundeel blasted through the Sydney autumn in 2014, winning the Randwick and Rosehill Guineas and Australian Derby.
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He tried to shut out the bigger picture of Anamoe but every race carried huge consequences for the colt’s residual value. Losing the Cox Plate by a whisker in 2021 (including a failed protest), then winning it the following year was high stakes for Godolphin. McDonald had to ensure it happened.
“If any one of them was going to get to me, it was probably Anamoe. It (stud value) is not something you think about but it’s a game-changer. On top of that, you become a marked man and that makes it harder and harder,” he said.
McDonald is not overwhelmed by his own status. He is modest but confident. At 32, he has breezed through 100 Group One winners and is poised to become the most successful jockey in history.
“I enjoy my own space, my own downtime. There are enough things to keep my feet on the ground. Having kids does that,” he said.
“What has happened in the last four or five years has been amazing. I have to admit I never imagined how big it had become until I went back to New Zealand the last time and it was a bit crazy.”
The heckling of poker-faced jockeys isn’t what it used to be, but it is still there. It has also migrated to social media. Superhero one minute, villain the next. Get beaten on a champion, and they’ll rip that cape off your back.
Little wonder mental health symposiums have begun to appear.
McDonald knows he can never let his guard down.
“Riding at a normal meeting at Happy Valley on a Wednesday is as important to me as riding Romantic Warrior,” he said. “That five minutes on their back means a lot more to me than the previous 20 minutes, or hour or whatever.
“You can have the pressure, but then you get the adrenalin and off you go.”
