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Craig Kerry
July 23, 2026 — 5:00pm
A refreshed James McDonald returns from a spell on Saturday driven to build towards more record-breaking feats after an “incredible” 2025-26 season.
The champion jockey, down for five rides at Randwick, is back from a break, including holidaying in Spain and Greece, following three wins from 17 rides in England at the Royal Ascot carnival, which ended on June 20.
“It was great, fantastic,” McDonald said.
“It was lovely to have a good spell. It was just nice to give the body a little let-up and it’s recovered pretty well. I feel nice and refreshed and ready to go.”
The Ascot success capped a remarkable season for the 34-year-old, who went past Damien Oliver’s Australasian record of 129 group 1 career wins and Malcolm Johnston’s 1979-80 national benchmark of 16 victories at the top level in a single season. He and Chris Waller also broke the Australian record for group 1 wins by a jockey-trainer combination, which was held by TJ Smith and George Moore (54).
“It’s been incredible,” McDonald said of the season.
“Probably Golden Slipper day was the highlight because not only was I juggling the expectation of the record of Damien Oliver’s, but I had four group 1 favourites on the day and to be able to win on three of them, I was so proud how we executed the whole day and managed all the owners’ expectations as well as my own and all my family’s.
“It was a special day.”
McDonald returns with two meetings left in the NSW metropolitan season and a record-equalling 10 Sydney premierships in his keeping. He has 88 wins, 11 ahead of next best, Zac Lloyd.
The world’s top-ranked jockey will not only draw level with Moore’s record, but equal the 1960s legend’s streak of eight consecutive titles, and he is motivated to go one better in 2026-27.
“It’s lovely to have those goals to set yourself,” McDonald said.
“For those guys to pave the way and set a benchmark, it’s a nice thing to chase down. To level with him is fantastic and to break it will be even better.
“You need those sort of targets. I think as an athlete you always want to better yourself each and every year, and I’ll keep trying to do that.”
McDonald has maintained an amazing record at home while regularly competing overseas, and he aims to “copy and paste” that success.
“I’ve still got my big old boy, Romantic Warrior, he’ll come back for a record-breaking fifth Hong Kong Cup [in December], so that’s going to pretty cool if we can do that,” he said.
McDonald has reunited with some of his star rides over the past two weeks in track work and trials and he has been especially impressed by the long line of Waller-trained colts.
“They have come back fantastic and developed immensely,” he said.
“There’s a heap that showed promise as two-year-olds, then they’ve had good breaks. Central Europe, St Gotthard, Confederation and Campione D’Italia, just to name a few. Physically, they have improved so much.”
Autumn Glow will again be a headline act in the spring, despite her unbeaten run coming to an end at 11 starts with third in the Queen Elizabeth Stakes in April. The mare was strong through the line under a hold from McDonald when third in her first trial back on Monday at Randwick and is set to resume in the Winx Stakes there on August 22.
“You don’t expect anything different because she always just takes everything in her stride and she’s very uncomplicated,” he said of the hit-out.
“She’s muscled up a bit more, and she moved great and pulled up great from that trial. She’s come back fantastic.”
McDonald will be back with a small but handy book of rides on Saturday at a minimum of 57.5 kilograms as he works back to full race fitness.
He said Waller-trained, Godolphin-owned colt Letters Patent, a $4.60 (TAB) favourite in the two-year-old race to start the program, was a motivation to return. He was third on debut behind the exciting Omolong before winning easily at Newcastle.
“Letters Patent is a nice young horse Chris is pretty keen for me to hop on, and it was just a nice time to come back,” he said.
“He’s a son of Wootton Bassett and he’s obviously going to keep improving. He likes give in the ground and he couldn’t have done much more there second-up, so he’s a nice horse progressing the right way.”
Kris Lees-trained speedster Hawker Hall ($5.50) in the ninth is another chance. The four-year-old resumes against last-start winners Ice Kool, Big Red Tequila and potentially Benevac.
“He’s a fast horse and it looks a pretty hot race, but he’s trialled up super, so he looks a huge hope,” he said.
On his other rides, McDonald thought Astronomix ($4.80 in the fourth), part-owned by his wife, Katelyn, could be scratched because of a wide draw, while Narbold ($6) was a good chance in the eighth after a third last start.
