James McDonald has been recruited by Wathnan Racing to carry their colours during the first three days of Royal Ascot.
The star rider will be utilised on an as-needed basis besides first-call jockey James Doyle, with William Buick and Colin Keane also in the mix. McDonald, or J-Mac as he is known Down Under, will have the call on Yulong's Carl Spackler (Lope De Vega) in the in the G1 Queen Anne Stakes on opening day.
Wathnan's racing adviser Richard Brown said, “We're going to have a good-sized team with multiple entries in certain races.
“William Buick helps us when he can but obviously his availability is limited and when talking to the team, we decided we needed to have somebody in position who might be able to help us.
“A lot of the top guys here have got their own commitments and we heard with interest that James McDonald is coming over to ride Carl Spackler, so we reached out to him and he's going to be here Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday before flying home for a wedding at the weekend.”
The regular rider of Hong Kong Horse of the Year Romantic Warrior (Acclamation), McDonald is also good friends with Doyle. He will be aboard Underwriter (Mehmas) in the G2 Coventry Stakes, as well as Aesterius (Mehmas) in the G1 King Charles III Stakes and King's Gambit (Saxon Warrior) in the Listed Wolferton Stakes all on June 17.
“I would imagine James will ride five or six for us over the first three days,” added Brown on the amount of rides that will be directed McDonald's way from the Emir of Qatar's operation. “He has a great record at Ascot and he's great mates with James Doyle, which is an important dynamic to it. They will be able to run through the horses together that James Doyle knows so well and 'Doyler' has got a few hard decisions to make.”
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