James McDonald, the Godolphin operation’s principal jockey in Australia and a Group Two-race winning rider in Britain this summer, is at the centre of a potential betting scandal following an announcement by the stewards of Racing NSW on Tuesday. McDonald faces a charge of either placing bets or being a party to bets on the subsequent Group One winner Astern, when the colt made a victorious debut at Sydney’s Royal Randwick in December 2015.
McDonald left a deep impression on many British punters this year, when he made the most of an opportunity to replace William Buick in Godolphin’s team of riders after the jockey was banned for 30 days after an incident at Chantilly in June. McDonald, who was already in Britain on a working holiday, extended his stay to the end of July and finished the month with 18 winners from 78 rides, a strike-rate of 23%.
His mounts during July also showed a profit to a £1 level stake of £37.88, and his victories included two Group Two events, the Princess of Wales’s Stakes at Newmarket on Big Orange and the Lennox Stakes at Glorious Goodwood aboard Dutch Connection.
Charlie Hills, the trainer of Dutch Connection, said after his victory in July that his father Barry, one of the most successful trainers of recent decades, had drawn parallels between McDonald and the great American champion Steve Cauthen after seeing him ride on the gallops for the first time. It was widely expected that McDonald, who was born in New Zealand, would return to Britain this summer, if only for a few weeks during the Australian winter.
McDonald agreed to stand himself down from riding on Tuesday until the case against him is heard, though Racing NSW indicated that it would have considered suspending his licence had he not done so on the grounds that it could risk undermining the “image, interests or integrity” of racing were he allowed to continue riding.
The charge against McDonald was issued following intelligence received by the stewards about an association between the rider and a “known punter”. The jockey is alleged to have had an interest in a bet on Astern when he made his first start in a minor event on 5 December 2015, which he won easily by 2½ lengths at odds of 5-2.
Astern is trained by John O’Shea, Godolphin’s principal trainer in Australia, and subsequently proved to be a high-class colt. He recorded wins in Group Three and Group Two events and was then steered to a two-and-a-quarter length success by McDonald in the Group One Golden Rose Stakes at Rosehill two months ago, for which he started favourite at 11-5.
If proved, the charge has the potential to derail McDonald’s career. In addition to any ban imposed by the stewards, his position as Godolphin’s main rider in Australia would also be under severe threat. O’Shea trains nearly 400 horses for Godolphin in Australia, and Sheikh Mohammed’s global racing and bloodstock operation would be highly sensitive to the possible damage to its image caused by illegal betting by one of its employees.
Since his return to Australia in August, McDonald has several big-race wins for O’Shea and Godolphin in addition to Astern’s Group One success, including Group One wins on consecutive days at Randwick and Flemington Park on 1 and 2 October. He steered Hauraki to a short-head victory in the Epsom Handicap at the former before recording a comfortable win on Hartnell in the Turnbull Stakes.
A date for the hearing into the charge against McDonald has yet to be set.
Many Clouds, the 2015 Grand National winner, was back on a racecourse on Tuesday for the first time since a recent wind operation, and delighted Oliver Sherwood in a gallop at Newbury ahead of his scheduled return to action at Aintree a fortnight on Saturday.
Many Clouds was strongly fancied for this year’s National as he attempted to become the first horse since Red Rum in the 1970s to win the race two seasons running. However, he faded rapidly from a promising position to be last of the 16 finishers, and Sherwood hopes that a recent operation will allow him to return to his best form.
“Many Clouds will start his season at Aintree two weeks on Saturday in the race he ran in over the Mildmay Course last year [when a close second behind Don Poli]”, Sherwood said, “and it will be a similar programme to last season.
“He made a gurgling noise midway through the Grand National earlier this year and we have had his soft palate cauterised. He has taken his work well and been very enthusiastic. He will school on Thursday but everything is going to plan at the moment.”
Wednesday’s scheduled meeting at Hexham was abandoned on Tuesday morning due to waterlogging, but officials at Haydock, which will stage the Grade One Betfair Chase on Saturday, hope that the ground will be no worse than soft at the track this weekend.
“At the moment we are soft, good-to-soft in places, but there is more rain to come so we look like being soft at the weekend,” Kirkland Tellwright, Haydock’s clerk of the course, said on Tuesday.
“I don’t think that will cause us any problems. Most of the protagonists [including Cue Card and Coneygree, the 2015 Gold Cup winner] are up for that.”
