No-one remembers who comes second, it’s often said in sport.
No-one remembers who comes first either, New Zealand jockey James McDonald might have been thinking, even after he came first three times in one day.
So he won a fourth race, this time making sure it was one of the big Group Ones.
“It’s the pinnacle of racing, the best of the best,” the 20-year-old hoop said after flashing past the post aboard Temple Of Boom to capture the Galaxy sprint at Randwick on Saturday.
“I can’t believe I’ve won a Group One race in Sydney. What a day it has been.”
The day could not have started any better for McDonald when he won the first three races on the card.
But they were all lesser events building up to the three Group Ones.
He didn’t have a mount in the first of them, the Oaks.
And when the feature race, the $2 million Doncaster Mile, was won by the highest-profile identities on the track – trainer Gai Waterhouse, owner John Singleton and jockey Nash Rawiller – everyone else was in danger of being blinded by the limelight.
Enter McDonald, for the fourth time into the winner’s circle with his victory in the last Group One of the day.
His four winners were all for different trainers, too.
McDonald had John O’Shea to thank the most.
“He’s got me over here and given me the best opportunity and I’m just trying to grab it with both hands,” the jockey said.
“Today is just a little taste of probably what is to come from James,” said O’Shea.
Temple Of Boom, curiously, was regarded as a wet-track runner who nevertheless won after the Randwick course had dried out with astonishing speed from a heavy (8) in the morning to a dead (5) in the afternoon.
Those improving conditions, however, played straight into the hands of Doncaster winner More Joyous, who might well have been withdrawn if Singleton had his way.
Singleton’s heart must have sank as quickly as the heels of the Parramatta City brass band as they performed on the sodden home straight between races early in the day.
But his chances improved with every minute after the sun broke out.
Such are the vagaries of racing, and in the end Singleton’s broad smile was matched only by that of James McDonald.
