James McDonald favoured to shatter all-time Group 1 record but says there’s an even bigger achievement at play

The Golden Slipper is the crowning glory of the southern hemisphere’s two-year-old season yet this year, it could be overshadowed by one man: James McDonald. The 34-year-old drew within one of Damien Oliver’s 129 Group 1 wins last weekend when steering Lazzura to Coolmore Classic glory and has a rock-solid book of rides at Rosehill on Saturday to surpass the record. Alongside Fireball ($13) in the Slipper, McDonald will first mount Aeliana ($1.55f) in the Ranvet Stakes, Autumn Boy ($2.20f) in the Rosehill Guineas and Autumn Glow ($1.30f) in the George Ryder Stakes, meaning there’s a striking possibility the record has already fallen by the time the former rolls around. And that’s without mentioning former WA mare Generosity ($13) in the Galaxy later in the day. However, the one thing all of those gallopers have in common is their trainer, Chris Waller, and if McDonald is to clinch his own piece of history, another record must fall: the most Group 1 wins by a trainer-rider combination. Waller and McDonald sit on 53 victories, one short of the benchmark set by Tommy Smith and George Moore, which ended in 1971. And it’s this record that McDonald says is more poignant. “The partnership with Chris (Waller) and the chance to beat Tommy Smith and George Moore’s record means more to me,” McDonald told the Sydney Morning Herald. “To do it with Chris, it would mean so much. “He’s done so much for my career, and his work ethic is incredible. “If I can get past Ollie’s riding record, it would be great, but it would mean more to my family – it would mean so much to the people who have sacrificed so much to help me get to where I am today. “But I truly haven’t thought about that. It’s not that I’m ungrateful, but it almost feels irrelevant. Plus, I don’t want to stop at 130. I’d love to get to 150. Even more. It’s a number to me. “I’d rather share a moment with someone like Chris than do something by myself.” An equally self-effacing Waller - who was conquered more in the last two decades than any trainer - says McDonald deserves the praise. “I think that’s James deflecting from his own achievements,” he said. “What he is about to achieve is quite remarkable, and at such a young age. It’s an honour to be working with him. “He’s a historian, a proud racing follower who isn’t just a jockey or groundbreaker, but someone who loves the sport and idolises what people did before him.” Their Group 1 tallies don’t read too badly for two boys both raised on dairy farms on the North Island of New Zealand, though Waller says he’s now happily an “ANZAC”. McDonald, also now proudly an Australian adoption, lives by a simple motto: “Every race day I’ll write on a piece of paper, ‘see it, feel it, win it’ and ‘enjoy’,” he said. “I don’t know if it works, but I keep doing it.”