James McDonald has won yet another Group 1 in Melbourne, making it his third Group 1 in four days at Caulfield.
The Chris Waller-trained Madame Pommery is the winner of the the Group 1 Thousand Guineas for 2022, after another 10 out of 10 ride by James McDonald, who was described as “possibly the best jockey we have seen in some time” by Dwayne Dunn.
Madame Pommery ran in the Flight Stakes last start and only went down by a neck to James McDonald’s ride that day, Zougotcha.
After sitting at the back of the field, this daughter of No Nay Never was able to cut the corner, when the rest of the field chose to go wide on the track to find better ground.
The decision to cut the corner by James McDonald was a master stroke as she didn’t round a horse and ended winning the Thousand Guineas easily by one and half lengths on the line.
2022 Thousand Guineas Replay
Chris Waller’s assistant trainer Charlie Duckworth, was very quick to compliment the smart ride of James McDonald after the race.
“Yeah, obviously a fantastic ride. Look we were a little bit cautious as to whether she would see out a tough mile, especially when the rain came.
“She got a gem of a ride, did no work early and only had to chime in and the 400 (metres) and she let down pretty impressively.
“It’s just incredible to take out a Group 1 as a stable, rather than just this filly, now that we have taken out the Flight Stakes and the Thousand Guineas.” Charlie Duckworth was over the moon to have won both of the three-year-old fillies features over the last three days with Zougotcha and Madame Pommery.
James McDonald has now ridden his first Thousand Guineas winner, adding to his four Caulfield Guineas winners that he added to on Saturday with Golden Mile.
“At some point in time, they are gonna overdo it. I reckon that was the time where it did and a lot of the races are pace related so I was very comfortable where I was at and it was so economical.” McDonald explained post-race when he was asked why he went back to the inside when it didn’t look like the place to be all day.
“Chris (Waller) has shown a lot of faith in this filly and that’s why he brought her down and he asked me to come down and said she would be very hard to beat here (Caulfield). He was real confident.”
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