Bjorn Baker mare unleeshes to give James McDonald soft double
James McDonald enjoyed a perfect midweek warm-up ahead of the Magic Millions, steering home two winners at Randwick Kensington on Wednesday.
The world-class jockey partnered debutant Astronomix to victory for John O’Shea and Tom Charlton before producing a clinical display aboard Bjorn Baker-trained favourite Unleeshing.
Fresh from a narrow third in Benchmark 78 grade, Unleeshing dropped back to the Myplates Benchmark 64 (1550m) and justified strong market support, starting $1.55.
McDonald settled the MyRacehorse syndicate mare in a handy stalking position, peeled off heels entering the straight and powered clear, scoring by four lengths over Shanoni ($14), with Kilkenny ($3.80) another length away.
As Baker counts down to the Magic Millions with Warwoven, racing manager Luke Hilton was satisfied with the manner of the win.
“It was an easy win,” Hilton said.
“She might even get a little bit further and hopefully she takes some confidence.”
McDonald said the race unfolded exactly as he expected.
“That was painless, she never felt like she was ever going to lose,” McDonald said.
“They just dawdled the first furlong and a half, and then obviously a little bit of pace got injected. We ended up in a good spot and away she went.”
“There’s about a million owners so I’m sure there’s uncles and sisters and brothers that are related to anyone in the horse!”
Attention now turns to the Gold Coast, with betting markets available across trusted betting platforms for Saturday’s Magic Millions card.
McDonald will have eight rides at the meeting, including Knightsbridge in the Magic Millions 2YO Classic for Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott, and Memo in the Magic Millions 3YO Guineas for Peter Snowden.
The post Bjorn Baker mare unleeshes to give James McDonald soft double first appeared on Just Horse Racing.
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