PJ McDonald earns place at top table on merit

For years, he thought nothing would beat his Scottish National win over jumps 10 years ago on Ferdy Murphy’s Hot Weld.

Yet, after switching to the Flat and working tirelessly to establish himself at the upper echelons, he’s enjoying a career-best season.

The 35-year-old has already ridden 83 winners this year – three more than his 2016 tally – and, after years of graft, he no longer goes to the major meetings to make up the numbers.

He’s there on merit, and with a serious chance of success, as exemplified by this week’s William Hill St Leger meeting at Doncaster. He rides Karl Burke’s Laurens in today’s Group Two May Hill Stakes for fillies before partnering stablemate Havana Grey in tomorrow’s Flying Childers Stakes.

First Laurens, who runs in the colours of McDonald’s retained owner John Dance.

“She won nicely at Doncaster and then she got beat by a really good horse in France who could be top class,” the Leyburn-based rider told The Yorkshire Post.

“I think we will improve again. Whatever happens at Donny, she’s a real star for the future. She could be top class. By that, I mean a Group One filly.”

Next Havana Grey, who had already won at Ayr, Sandown and, most memorably, Goodwood’s prestigious Molecomb Stakes before being narrowly denied by Unfortunately, another exciting prospect at Burke’s in-form yard, in the Prix Morny over six furlongs.

McDonald believes the drop back in distance to the minimum trip – five furlongs – will suit.

“Havana Grey has done absolutely nothing wrong this season,” he ventured.

“He’s just gone from strength to strength all the way. It’s all systems go for Friday. Karl is delighted. Lucy, the girl who rides him, is delighted. The soft ground shouldn’t be a problem. If he showed up in the same form that you saw at Goodwood, or in France, he’s the one they all have to beat.

“It’s brilliant – races like this, the opportunities, are what you’ve worked for all these years. I’ve got the chance – I’ve got to try and take it.”

McDonald is in a relaxed frame of mind on his drive to Doncaster races yesterday.

He reports his wife Abby, and the couple’s young children Amelia and Lavinia, to be in fine form.

“Kids are good so I can’t ask for much more,” he says.

His alliance with the aforementioned Dance, a Newcastle-based owner, is one factor behind the jockey’s rise to prominence.

He is becoming more influential with the purchase of young horses, who have the potential to compete on the bigger racedays.

The fact that McDonald is now regularly used by Burke, or fellow Middleham trainer Mark Johnston, is something he regards as equally significant.

“Riding for trainers like that, it lifts your profile,” he says. “People think if he’s good enough for Mark Johnston or Karl Burke, then he’s good enough for me. It all helps.”

And then there was the rider’s high-profile victory on Malton trainer Peter Niven’s ever-popular stayer Clever Cookie in last year’s Yorkshire Cup – it proved, more than anything, that this County Wexford-born horseman belonged at racing’s elite level.

It also vindicated the rider’s decision to utilise his relatively light weight and spend a summer on the Flat after Hot Weld’s success in the Scottish equivalent of the Grand National.

“I was very young. It was my first real winner and I didn’t really take it in,” he recalled. “You think the next one will be just around the corner. You don’t realise how hard these top-class winners are to come by.

“I had to wait from Hot Weld to Clever Cookie – that’s nearly 10 years – for another horse to come along. That’s why I need to make the most of these good young horses. I’m under no illusions how hard they are to come across. As long as I can keep the people I ride for happy. You want to be at the bigger meetings and I’d love to win a Group One.

“But I wouldn’t be where I am if it wasn’t for Ferdy Murphy. I was only young when I moved to his yard at West Witton. He was always very, very positive when there were other riders in the yard, like Tom Dreaper and Keith Mercer, who were better than me.

“He believed in me. When I made the switch, he made the decision so easy because he said my job would always be there if it didn’t work out. I had nothing to lose.”