The best Godolphin rides in Sydney will be kept open for James McDonald despite two overseas jockeys contracted to the international stable being confirmed for autumn carnival mounts.
English jockey James Doyle will arrive from Dubai next week to ride at the Chipping Norton Stakes meeting while his British colleague William Buick will be in action during March.
Contributer
But although he isn’t contracted to the stable, McDonald will continue to have first call on Godolphin’s horses in the John O’Shea yard, according to Sheikh Mohammed’s bloodstock advisor John Ferguson.
“James McDonald will continue to get the first choice of ours in Sydney,” Ferguson said.
“But we would also like to have our contracted jockeys James Doyle and William Buick as back up, and to achieve this we would like them to experience the very different rhythm and style of Australian racing as soon as possible.”
Doyle will link with the imported Hartnell in the Chipping Norton Stakes, the Group One race in which McDonald will keep an association with the stable’s impressive first-up winner Contributer.
“We are a global stable, and we want to be able to use our young riding talent most effectively wherever there is top-class racing,” Ferguson said.
Godolphin’s position will ensure McDonald has the pick of the stable’s expected multiple hand in next month’s Golden Slipper.
One of the jockey’s four rides for O’Shea at Rosehill on Saturday will be Silver Slipper Stakes favourite Ottoman.
He will also partner Sweynesse for the first time in a race when the colt resumes in the Hobartville Stakes (1400m).
Fewer two-year-olds have created a bigger impression than Ottoman did in her first-up win over the Silver Slipper course in December.
Put off stride soon after landing, Ottoman came from an impossible position on the turn to beat Miss Idyllic and Pride Of Dubai.
Sweynesse returns after ending a successful spring with a close-up eighth in the Cox Plate but he is unbeaten in two first-up 1400-metre runs.
At the start of his spring campaign, Sweynesse claimed the scalps of two subsequent Group One winners in First Seal and Hampton Court in a benchmark race over the Hobartville course.
