Making his first appearance at a Sydney Saturday meeting since Everest day in October, James Mcdonald wasted no time announcing he was back in town with a spectacular four-winner haul at Rosehill.
The champion jockey spent the latter part of the spring carnival in Melbourne then jetted to Hong Kong for a summer riding stint, before spending almost a month sidelined by a careless riding suspension.
He made a low-key return at Canterbury on Friday night, but there was nothing low-key about his performance on Saturday.
Opening his account with a brilliant victory aboard new Golden Slipper favourite Wodeton, McDonald added wins aboard Polyglot, Tajanis and Osipenko to take his Sydney metropolitan tally to 51 for the season.
Due to overseas riding commitments in Hong Kong and Dubai, he won’t get a chance to add to that this week as he isn’t returning until after next Saturday’s Randwick card.
Three of McDonald’s four Rosehill winners were for Chris Waller, whose assistant Charlie Duckworth said he expected nothing less from the star rider despite his lengthy absence.
“He is riding probably no better than he normally does, he is just a very good rider. He sums up races beautifully,” Duckworth said.
“We’re going to miss him next weekend.”
McDonald’s haul included the Listed January Cup (2000m) aboard Osipenko, the five-year-old’s first win since taking out the 2023 Frank Packer Plate.
While Osipenko went on to be Group 1 placed behind Mr Brightside the following spring, he subsequently struggled for form and Duckworth said it had been a case of trial and error to get him back.
“It has taken a long time and been a slow process to get to this point, but in his last three starts, each run has got better and today was brilliant. It’s nice to get a kill with him,” Duckworth said.
“He competed at Group One level as a three-year-old, we had to get him gelded and he lost his way a little bit.
“He is really knuckling down and trying hard, which is all we have needed him to do because the talent has always been there.
“I’d imagine we will tip him out while we’ve got him going alright and then make a proper plan for a winter campaign.”
Osipenko ($3) scored by 1-1/4 lengths over Converge ($9.50) with the winner’s stablemate Saltcoats ($2.30 fav) another three lengths in arrears after being forced to change course in the straight.
