James McDonald, among the most talented jockeys, not only in the Southern Hemisphere but the Northern Hemisphere, has lost his appeal for betting.

In fact it was just one single bet of a $1,000, but enough to wreck the career of the highest paid jockey in the world.

While it is believed he was conned into the bet, he has another 13 months to sweat it out, and no guarantee he will ever come back as good as he was, or given the same opportunities.

He committed the mortal sin, he had a bet, a lousey bet, he didn’t need it, he had the world at his feet, riding in England at the height of the Northern Hemisphere season and returning to Australia for the major stakes races in the spring and the autumn, riding for the most lucrative racing stable in the world.

Surely he had to be conned, I have never taking him for a fool, nor should anyone else, a likeable young man with a great personality and a genius in the saddle.

Why!, a word he would have asked himself a thousand times over and never received a plausible answer.