Racing: Clash with Cropp to follow record

James McDonald on Cool Cruising (left) takes out the seventh race at Pukekohe to break Lisa Cropp's 197 seasonal record. Photo / Supplied

You wouldn't mind being a fly on the wall when James McDonald and Lisa Cropp come together in the Eagle Farm birdcage in Brisbane this afternoon.

Cropp's expression, in particular, will be interesting.

When McDonald ripped away Cropp's 197 seasonal record in shockingly deep mud and driving rain at Pukekohe yesterday, it might have almost been a relief for Cropp.

Only today's meeting will tell.

When the fanatically competitive former Cambridge horsewoman, now riding out of Melbourne, compiled that record, it was the 2004-05 racing season, the year Cropp tested positive to methamphetamine.

She had a remarkable 1261 rides to achieve her target - McDonald made it in 890 - and many said she could not have made it through that many rides without physical enhancement.

Cropp has cleaned up her act and is grabbing headlines in Australia using that same brand of superhuman talent to motivate thoroughbreds that made her a household name before her troubles.

She might see with this eclipse of her record that she has nothing to look back on and everything to look forward to.

Cropp and McDonald have several rides each in Brisbane this afternoon, but don't come together in the same race until the final event, the A$250,000 ($321,000) Queensland Guineas. McDonald rides the $21 chance Tigress Lily for Sydney trainer John O'Shea.

Cropp is engaged for Fashion ($18), who is prepared by Heath Conners.

The required win to surpass the 197 record was frustratingly slow in coming yesterday.

There was a lot of fanfare about the win and the abandonment of the remaining two races after the record was set, but the timing of this was hardly critical - with a month and a half of the season left it was always when, not if.

But the occasion still got to the remarkably cool McDonald.

"All along I hadn't been fazed by the record and I was prepared to pull the pin [on the meeting] a couple of races ago, but now I've got the record I'm chuffed."

McDonald said it was about how it was achieved every bit as much as the record itself, and he gave credit to his manager, Gary Cossey.

"Cossey and I have worked hard for this all season."

Indeed they have - the stunning statistic of the record is the strike rate of under 4.5, by far the best of any of the country's serious jockeys.

The record was nearly broken in McDonald's first ride for theday.

He was on the favourite, Zahtui, and despite nearly throwing the horse over the finish line, he was beaten half a head by apprentice Maija Vance on Maharishi.

It went largely unnoticed, but McDonald's class and ability to motivate was evident in race 6 when he rode hot favourite Pure Platinum into second, beaten one-and-three-quarter lengths. Pure Platinum at no stage looked happy in the very testing conditions.

The filly was going backwards and looked likely to finish last at the 500m but McDonald pushed, persuaded and cajoled her to the point where she managed to pick up enough to run into the money.

Class isn't always about simply winning. As the winning post arrived on the record-breaking ride, it was two pats down the mane for Cool Cruising, a windmill left-arm fling and a killer smile. Then as McDonald dismounted - reality.

"These records are always there to be broken. There's always someone coming through. I hope this one lasts a while."

With a month and a half to bolster it, McDonald has every opportunity to ensure it does. Because it will be his last flick at it. An Australian announcement for the new season is almost certainly imminent and has looked inevitable for months.