Light Infantry Man “as good a chance as any” to give J-Mac big WA Group 1

James McDonald has dominated racing all over Australia and overseas, but he’s yet to light it up in Western Australia.

Not quite anyway.

He and Zaaki were beaten by a lip by Dom To Shoot in the Group 1 Northerly Stakes in December last year. Prior to that he came up short on Cascadian who ran fourth in the same race in 2022.

McDonald will return to Ascot for this weekend’s Railway Stakes meeting to ride Light Infantry Man in the Group 1 feature over 1600m.

The superstar jockey, who is yet to win a big Group 1 in WA, is well aware that bringing an interstate horse over to Perth is no easy feat.

“Zaaki I thought was a sit-and-steer and I got nabbed on the post,” McDonald joked on SENTrack’s Best From The West.

“That was a bit disappointing. She was as good a chance as I’ve ever had heading into a big race over there.

“Hopefully I can go and get one this time.

“It’s pretty hard for an interstate horse. The locals are so hard to beat on their own turf.

”It’s very competitive, very tight, very quick and there’s some pretty good jockeys there that make life pretty tough. It’s good fun.”

He feels that in Light Infantry Man he has a great chance to tick off a Perth major.

The Ciaron Maher-trained import won for the first time in eight Australian starts in the Listed Chester Manifold Stakes at Flemington on Oaks Day and McDonald feels he might just have found the confidence needed to win a Railway.

“It’s hard to jump off a last-start winner, especially with how he won,” he continued.

“He hadn’t won for a long time and those sort of horses seem to get a bit of confidence after having a bit of a ‘kill’, so to speak.

“His run the other day at Flemington was fantastic. His form lines in Europe are as strong as ever if he actually brought his ‘A-form’.

“He used to show no tactical speed at all. Six months ago he was a thinker in the gates and would come out slow, but now he’s springing out and can put himself in a good position.

“That’s a good thing around Ascot is that he can take a prominent position if need be.

“He looks as good a chance as any, so we’re looking forward to that.”

Light Infantry Man will carry 55.5kg on Saturday having towed 58.5kg at headquarters a fortnight ago which puts him right in the mix for the $1.5 million race.

“He drops three kilos from his win and that’s pretty significant,” McDonald added.

“He’s a horse in form and he’s got his tail in the air, so he’s going to be very hard to beat.

“We’ll have him pretty cherry ripe. He gives you a good feel and if he brings his A-game then he’ll be awfully hard to beat, especially from his European form.”

Light Infantry Man, who drew fairly kindly in barrier 2, is currently rated the $4.60 favourite with Sportsbet for the Railway.

McDonald will travel from Hong Kong to Perth on the day of the race before flying out that night. He won’t even spend 24 hours in WA as he has to return for Sunday racing at Sha Tin.

The 104-time Group 1 winner will then travel back to Perth the following weekend to ride Lady Laguna in the Winterbottom Stakes (1200m).

Listen to the first episode of SENTrack’s Best From The West show below:

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