Platinum Racing

KIWI CHAMPION JOCKEY James McDonald is an absolute superstar. At 17, what this boy has achieved already in his short career is astonishing and he took his talents to Singapore this weekend to ride for expat Kiwi trainer Laurie Laxon on Friday night and today at Kranji.

He landed three winners and two very close seconds over the weekend, two of them for Laxon and one for another Kiwi expat Stephen Gray. The winner of last season's jockey's premiership in New Zealand, a feat that is unbelievable in only his second season riding, McDonald has that "X Factor" that makes freak riders.

The excursion to Singapore will only add to his experience and he was not in the slightest over-awed by the occasion. Laxon said he "he is very polished", somewhat of an understatement. "He has won the jockey's title in only his second year riding and not even Shane Dye, Jimmy Cassidy and Greg Childs, all champion jockeys, could do that." Laxon said.

Weight is the only thing that will stop McDonald from becoming an international star.

LAXON CAME UP WITH A GREAT quote in an interview with Craig Frost in Singapore today. Frost asked Laxon what instructions he had given young James McDonald before he won on Big Momoko and Laxon simply said: "you don't need to give good jockeys instructions and bad ones don't listen."

Spot on!

I GOT A THRILL OUT OF SOME OF THE results in Singapore this weekend. Today, Recycle King, a son of Viking Ruler led throughout to win for trainer Stephen Gray and jockey James McDonald. Recycle King is owned by my friend Philip Ho and his cousin Eric who were my hosts for the international meeting in Singapore recently (there are photos of Philip, Eric and I in the archives section at the meeting).

It was great to see the horse win for them. It was also terrific to see former Victorian trainer John Meagher's apprentice, A.K. Sabrina, land her first winner in Singapore on board Lim's Glory this afternoon. Young Sabrina has been riding for a couple of years and after a stack of placing has finally cracked her Kranji drought. She had ridden a few winners in outback Queensland when on loan here last year to gain some experience, but today's win on Lim's Glory is a day she will never forget.

The large crowd at Kranji gave her a rousing reception as she brought the winner back to scale to be greeted by former Aussie champion jockey Mick Dittman, who is the manager of the Lim Racing Stable. Female apprentices in Asia are rare and Crystal Ang in the late 90's was the forerunner to Asian female apprentices. Crystal has since retired from riding.

Desmond Koh, one of the best young trainers in Asia, celebrated his birthday in great style with a winning treble on Friday night and he backed that up today with another winner for the weekend, three of them ridden by Hong Kong-based Frenchman Olivier Doleuze.

With a team of bargain buys, Kohn does a tremendous job.

DANIEL EDMONDS CONTINUED his great run of success on western districts tracks when he landed a winning double at today's Cattleman's Cup meeting at Warren, including winning the cup for Bathurst trainer Gayna Williams on Little Britain.

Edmonds also won on Flogsdream for Trangie trainer Paul Mitchell. Daniel does a lot of riding for us at Platinum and both Williams and Mitchell are also great supporters of this very talented young jockey.

DUBBO TRAINER Dennis D'Arcy has a crackerjack little mare in Little Holly, a daughter of Laser Doll, who D'Arcy also raced. Her win at Warren today was a corker, coming on the hees of her terrific win at Norromine last week. A city win is not beyond this mare.

GOULBURN TRAINER DANNY WILLIAMS certainly turned around the fortunes of former Black Opal winner Sarthemare. Having her first start for the astute trainer yesterday at Doomben she led throughout to win well.

Sarthemare started her career with Queanbeyan trainer Neville Layt, who won Canberra' premier two year old race with her. She was then transferred to Adelaide trainer Phillip Stokes, and her performances over there were well below par. Williams, one of the best trainers in the country, has the mare back on track judging on her effort yesterday.

TODAY'S PENANG MEETING in Malaysia was washed out after heavy tropical rains after the first race. Next weekend, Penang hosts its major two day racing carnival so they will be hoping they got the bad weather out of the way today. They did race in Penang yesterday and Erasmus Aslam started off a great weekend riding a winning double and followed that up with a winner at Kranji today.

Benny Woodworth rode a winner at Kranji on Friday night and one yesterday at Penang.

AUSSIE JOCKEY BRENT STANLEY had a great day Taipa in Macau yesterday, landing three winners at the meeting. Brent won on Phenom King, Natural Talent and Lim's Passion.