Racing: Cup-winning jockey James McDonald saddles up for eight rides on Oaks Day

James McDonald can do no wrong. The winner of The Everest and the Melbourne Cup, has 16 more rides booked at the carnival. He needs to win four to have the most successful Cup week in history.

Verry Elleegant takes a gentle walk a day after her historic win in the Melbourne Cup. Picture: Getty Images.

Oaks Day. James McDonald rides again. He’ll jump off cloud nine, drive down Epsom Road, smell the roses, flash his accreditation, prove he’s double-vaxxed, grab a crop and throw his leg over eight horses on a stacked program for the Melbourne Cup winner on his return to Flemington.

Verry Elleegant’s swooping victory in the Cup still feels like a dream to the hottest jockey in town. In an interview on SEN radio on Wednesday morning, McDonald gushed like it was still too good to be true. “Just couldn’t believe it,” he said. “She relaxed and then she executed the best she’s ever executed in her life. What a race to do it in. So smooth for her … there wasn’t one stage of the race where I had to jam up … got faster and faster … it was just perfect. It was just a matter of catching the favourite (Incentivise) and she did it within five or six bounds. She was travelling that easily … just incredible …. I wish I could ride the race again from the start … she gave me the most beautiful ride the whole race.”

McDonald hit the hay early on Tuesday night. Physically and emotional knackered. He woke early on Wednesday and watched a Cup replay. Just to make sure it happened. His A-grade performances have made him an automatic and profitable choice for punters and an ATM for connections. He won The Everest. He saluted four times on Derby Day. On Tuesday he steered Profiteer home in The Schweppervescence Plate before he joined Verry Elleegant in the most compelling performance by a leading man and woman in Melbourne since Charlene married Scott in Neighbours. He will arrive at Flemington on Thursday with the air of a man who’s ship just keeps on coming in. Only Max Verstappen in a Red Bull has ridden better this year. He’s the most unstoppable J-Mac since McEnroe.

McDonald will have another eight runners on Stakes Day on Saturday, including his old mate Nature Strip. He’s an athlete at the peak of his powers, riding animals that aren’t far behind him. If you put a dollar on each of these 16 rides of his, surely you’ll come out in decent shape. He’s won six of the 19 races held so far in Cup week. That’s a hell of a strike rate. And a prestigious record seems a certainty.

Brett Prebble holds the benchmark for the most Cup carnival winners on nine. McDonald has six and there’s still two full meetings to come. Five of his rides on Thursday will reunite his Everest-winning, Cup-claiming combination with trainer Chris Waller. Six of his bookings are top three in betting. All eight of his Oaks Day appointments are priced between $2 and $11.

Good boy! That’s what he told Nature Strip after The Everest. Good girl! That’s what he told Verry Elleegant after the Cup. Which one’s his favourite? Can you split ‘em? “You can’t,” he said. “They’re equal but maybe you’re only as good as your last win so at the moment, it’s Verry Elleegant. Hopefully Nature Strip will do the job on Saturday.”

After Incentivise’s defeat, no favourite will ever feel safe again. The Oaks jumps at 5.10pm. ‘Tis anyone’s. The top five chances are bunched in betting. The Jye McNeil-ridden Elusive Express at $4.20. McDonald’s Daisies at $4.60. Damien Oliver’s Willowy at $4.60. Hugh Bowman’s Biscayne Bay at $7. Nash Rawiller’s Glint of Hope at $8.50. It’s tempting to throw the form guide away and back McDonald.

Meanwhile, Waller’s alarm went off at 2.38am on the first Wednesday in November he could call himself a Melbourne Cup-winning trainer. At a media conference at Rosehill Gardens, he paid tribute to McDonald’s ride but made it clear the six-year-old mare was unlikely to defend The Great Race next year.

“For her to do that was an amazing effort,” he said. “To try it again, it would be tricky as she is in the twilight of her career. How long can she keep racing? What she’s doing for a six-year-old is special. She’s an equine athlete of the highest calibre. If she is to race on, we need to make sure she can race at the elite level and I don’t think the autumn will be any problem – but if at any stage she is showing us she is ready to be a mum, she will become a mum.”

Waller might have thought Winx would be the highlight of his career. How could you top that? On the day Winx won her last race at Royal Randwick in 2019, an unheralded filly named Verry Elleegant won the ATC Australian Oaks. Two years later, she’s a 10-time G1 winner and the Melbourne Cup champ.

“Verry Elleegant was like a caged tiger, basically, when we first got her,” Waller said. “But through maturity she has developed into this beautiful horse that is putting her free spirit into her racing. For Verry Elleegant to come along as Winx finished – who would have thought? Lightning does strike twice.”