George Simon: Six reasons why JMac wins a Halberg!
George Simon • November 25th, 2024 4:15 PM
American baseball superstar Yogi Berra once famously said "It's Deja vu all over again".
I’ve always loved that quote and it was front and centre again on Sunday night.
I had just watched the favourite Do Deuce, with legendary Japanese jockey Yutaka Take win the Japan Cup.
While impressed with the winner’s performance, the real interest for me was the Aidan O’Brien trained Auguste Rodin.
Perennial World Champion jockey Ryan Moore was locked in a titanic battle with a Kid from Kaipaki called McDonald.
These days he’s just called JMac.
The Japan Cup was the last race in the series of races worldwide that determine who is crowned the 2024 World’s Best Jockey.
McDonald held a ten-point buffer over Moore going into the Japan Cup.
Simply put, Moore had to win the Japan Cup to surpass McDonald and retain his World’s Best Jockey title.
Unfortunately for Moore, Auguste Rodin found the task beyond him, finishing a battling midfield position.
So, officially James McDonald is the 2024 World’s Best Jockey.
It is the second time JMac has won the title in his glittering career in the saddle, after winning it in 2022.
This is where the Deja vu component kicks in.
Back in 2022, the racing industry mounted a reasonably strong case for JMac to be included as a contender for NZ Sportsman of the Year in the annual Halberg Awards.
Although his nomination made it through the initial round, McDonald was overlooked as one of the five finalists for Sportsman of the Year.
Without denigrating the achievements of those five finalists I struggled to be convinced that JMac didn't deserve to be in that finalist line up.
Then again, the Halberg Awards have never really been my cup of tea.
There's no doubting the ideals behind the Halberg’s are commendable.
To recognise sporting excellence and the commitment and dedication of our elite athletes is a noble sentiment.
It's just the obvious favouring of certain sports over others that gets my goat.
A good mate of mine was on the voting panel a few years ago.
He resigned from that voting panel in protest after the Sports Team of the Year was given to a team that actually didn't win a single game that year.
How does that work?
If JMac is ever going to be recognised in the Halberg Awards it surely must be now.
Look at just some of his achievements over the past 12 months.
- World's Best Jockey
- Totally dominating Melbourne Cup Carnival with 11 wins
- Third successive Cox Plate on three different horses
- Another Sydney Jockeys Premiership, his sixth in a row
- Group One wins in Australia, Hong Kong and Japan
- Rode his 100th Group One winner, the fastest to ever do so
I know my Trackside colleague Guy Heveldt started the JMac for Sportsman of the Year crusade a few weeks ago and there are many willing to jump on the bandwagon, myself included.
It's just the skeptic in me who doubts it would happen.
I'm also an eternal optimist so I'll leave you with another Yogi Berra quote.
"It ain't over til it's over".
