Australia’s best jockey James McDonald must be growing tired of being plonked on the wrong Chris Waller horse in a run of group 1 outs that have probably cost him up to $150,000 in prize money.

Waller snared the $3 million Caulfield Guineas with talented colt The Autumn Boy on Saturday in a victory that would have earned the winning jockey $90,000 for a five per cent cut of the victor’s cash.

Jockey James McDonald will be hoping to add to his group 1 tally in coming weeks. Credit: Getty Images

Sadly for the McDonald bank balance, he was not the winning jockey. Instead, J-Mac partnered Waller’s other three-year-old colt Wodeton which finished 10th.

It’s the second time in successive weeks that McDonald has been on the wrong side of the ledger. A bit like the fastest Formula One driver not being handed the keys to the fastest car.

He looked to have the choice between riding Autumn Glow in Sydney’s Epsom Handicap or teaming up with Via Sistina in the Turnbull Stakes at Flemington two Saturdays back, but Waller made a “coach’s call” and sent him to Victoria.

Sure enough, Autumn Glow won and Via Sistina finished third. That’s a $20,000 turnaround right there.

On top of that, McDonald had finished second on Wodeton behind Waller stablemate Beiwacht in the $1 million Golden Rose the week before. More cash down the drain.

Not that J-Mac can complain too much. He has earned a pretty penny by winning 48 of his 120 group 1 victories on Waller horses and can add to that tally in The Everest this Saturday on either of Waller’s runners – Joliestar or Lady Shenandoah. Let’s hope he makes the right choice.

Gallant sprinter Asfoora has taken trainer Henry Dwyer around the world.Credit: Getty Images

Less than a week after becoming the first Australian trainer to win a group 1 in France, celebrating with an elaborate meal of “snails, foie gras and frog legs”, down-to-earth horseman Henry Dwyer was stopping for a chicken pie at Dunkeld’s Izzy’s Café on his way to the Hamilton Cup.

“I love those country cup meetings, I have been going to them since I was a kid,” Dwyer explained on Sunday.

It has been a whirlwind 18 months for the popular Dwyer who caught the racing world by surprise in June last year when his mighty mare Asfoora won the........

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