Top Kiwi jockey James McDonald left without a ride in Melbourne Cup as Loft is scratched

James McDonald owes Michael Walker from his apprentice days.

James McDonald was described as the “best jockey in the world” following his Cox Plate win last week, but he won’t have a ride in the Melbourne as his horse was sensationally scratched from the race on Friday.

Racenet reported that Loft, the second favourite, was found to have a tendon issue by Racing Victoria vets on Friday morning.

Loft was subsequently withdrawn from the race. “I can confirm he will not be running in the 2022 Melbourne Cup,” part-owner Ozzie Kheir told Racenet. “It is disappointing for all the owners.”

Loft was at $6.50 for the famous race at Flemington, and the scratching will come as a hammer blow to McDonald, who won the Melbourne Cup last year on Verry Elleegant.

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The Sydney-based New Zealander has been in outstanding form recently, prompting multiple Melbourne Cup winning hoop Glen Boss to declare that he was at the top of his craft.

“He’s the best jockey in the world,” the now retired Boss told Racing.com.

“I’ve been saying that for 18 months, two years. He’s just starting to get into his rhythm now, he’s seeing them like watermelons.”

Vince Caligiuri/Getty Images

James McDonald on Loft during the Breakfast With The Stars trackwork session at Flemington Racecourse earlier this week.

The Cox Plate win was was McDonald’s seventh Group I success during a season which only started at the beginning of August. He now has 72 Group I wins.

“He rode the best horse like the best horse should be ridden, uncomplicated,” Boss, who had three Melbourne Cup wins on the great mare Makybe Diva, said.

“He makes it look too easy. He just makes it look very, very simple, and that’s what he does.

“He’s just different to most of the jockeys I’ve seen in the past. He’s the best I’ve seen,’’ Boss told Racing.com.

McDonald, who hails from Cambridge and proved himself New Zealand’s best jockey before shifting to Sydney in 2012, told reporters he thrived on racing’s major events.

“I love these days,” McDonald told Racing.com.

“I don’t know what it is. I turn up and do my best and if I get the little things right throughout a meeting things will look after themselves, and I’m on the right horses.”

Last year, McDonald made history by winning the Melbourne Cup from barrier 18 – the first time in 160 years of the race that stops two nations that a horse had won from that stall.

“I just didn’t think this day would ever happen. I ride in these races, I really want to win but sometimes you can overthink it and try too hard,” McDonald said after the victory.

“I was very confident in the mare today. Thoughts went through my mind at the 500-metre mark when I saw Incentivise getting shoved along, but I knew he would fight. There wasn’t a horse that was going to come from behind me, it was just a matter of catching him.”

This year’s Melbourne Cup takes place on Tuesday, but McDonald has been denied the chance to repeat his heroics.