Wathnan snap up James McDonald for Royal Ascot rides

Wathnan Racing have swooped to secure the services of top international jockey James McDonald for Royal Ascot.

The Emir of Qatar’s racing operation enjoyed a four-timer at the Royal meeting 12 months ago and with a swelling team once again this year and multiple entries in many races, the New Zealand-born pilot will prove a more than able deputy to James Doyle for the leading owners.

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.”

A good friend of Wathnan number one Doyle, ‘J-Mac’ has enjoyed notable recent success on the world stage aboard Hong Kong star Romantic Warrior, while he has a stellar record at Royal Ascot enjoying a treble in 2022 which included Group One glory aboard Australian ace Nature Strip.

“I would imagine James will ride five or six for us over the first three days,” continued Brown.

“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.

“But James is such a team player and is very pro the idea and I’m sure he’ll be helping the other James with the form of the races and the horses he’ll be on.

“We didn’t want to leave anything to chance and it’s very hard to get the top guys booked with them having their own commitments, so to have James McDonald riding for us where we have multiple entries and William Buick can’t (ride) makes an awful lot of sense.”