Kiwi jockey James McDonald heads to Royal Ascot with US star
Michael Guerin • June 5th, 2025 9:43 AM • 4 min read
The world’s best jockey is off to the world’s best race meeting after all.
And Kiwi riding sensation James McDonald has a new superstar to lure him all the way to England for Royal Ascot in a fortnight.
McDonald was crowned Longines World’s Best Jockey for 2024 in Hong Kong in December and leads the major race rankings again by a huge margin, although with the advantage that the flat racing season in Europe is only just getting warm.
That means McDonald’s main rival, Ryan Moore, will be riding in more major races over the next three or four months as the Group 1 calendar winds down in Australia, and Hong Kong has its annual break.
McDonald was facing missing the entire Northern Hemisphere summer, including Royal Ascot, one of his favourite meetings in the world, until a few days ago.
But he has been lured to London after being booked to ride three-time United States Grade 1 winner Carl Spackler on the first day of the Royal meeting on June 17.
Carl Spackler is one of the best milers in the US but has been purchased by Australian-based racing and breeding giants Yulong to be trained by Ciaron Maher, with this year’s Cox Plate a potential aim.
Maher got on the phone to McDonald and now the Sydney-based Kiwi superstar will be heading to Ascot, much to his delight.
“I missed it last season and it still bugs me,” McDonald told the Herald.
“I love Ascot, the Royal meeting is very special to me and I could have been on Asfoora up there last season. But I wasn’t sure she would be that great a chance after both the Australians got beaten in the two Group 1 sprints up there the year before.
“Our second daughter had also just been born, so the timing didn’t work out, but of course Asfoora went up there and won the Group 1.
“I was stoked for her connections and it’s great to see horses from down here winning but I’m still annoyed to miss it,” McDonald said with a smile.
Asfoora returns to Ascot this year, too, and will ironically also be racing on the opening day.
McDonald has been impressed by what he has seen in Carl Spackler’s videos, the latest being of the chestnut with the striking white face marking bolting away with the Maker’s Mark Mile Stakes at Keeneland last month.
Carl Spackler has already arrived in Newmarket in England and Maher heads up there next week to oversee his preparation as the 5-year-old gets ready for the Queen Anne Stakes.
Carl Spackler was installed at 12-1 by Ladbrokes for the Queen Anne on June 17, when he will bid to become the first horse trained outside Europe to win the Group 1 contest since Tepin struck in 2016.
A supplementary fee of £53,000 will need to be paid by Carl Spackler’s new connections on June 11 to gain entry for the £750,000 Queen Anne after the initial entry stage closed on April 29.
“This presents a really exciting and unique US-Australia angle,” said Ascot director of racing Nick Smith.
“Chad Brown [former trainer] has developed Carl Spackler into arguably the best turf miler in the US and Ciaron is one of Australia’s elite trainers.”
McDonald will now look for good rides on the first three days of the Royal meeting, which sees racing every day from the Tuesday until Saturday, June 21, although he will miss the last two days of the extravaganza, as he had already promised to go to a wedding in Asia on the Saturday.
He says returning to Royal Ascot has provided the late-season shot of motivation he needed.
“It has been a long season with a lot of travelling but I have loved it, as I’m in a very privileged position and get to ride some special horse,” he says.
“But after the Queensland carnival, I was going to need a break. Now this has come along and I’m buzzing again because it’s a wonderful place to ride at.”
McDonald most famously won the King’s Stand Stakes on Nature Strip on Ascot’s opening day in 2022 and has quickly won over English punters and trainers with his outstanding early strike rate at their most glamorous meeting.
McDonald riding on the first three days of the meeting will also boost New Zealand interest in the week, with the meeting set to have its usual huge coverage on Trackside, and with many of the Group 1 races having already had TAB futures betting open for months.
The first race of Royal Ascot will be in the early hours of Wednesday, June 18.
