Hollie Doyle has just driven from Wales to Lambourn (about 15 miles from Newbury, England), an arduous journey at the best of times, for a riding lesson with John Reid.
Upon arrival, one of the most famous jockeys of the last 30 years and general guru sees that the budding talent has a broken finger and takes the sensible option to abandon the lesson. She refuses to leave. Reid relents.
Wind forward to summer 2018, and Doyle who is by now an established member of the profession falls from the 66-1 chance Snoop (GB) (Paco Boy {Ire}) in a Haydock handicap and is kicked in the face on the way down. Knocked unconscious and swallowing most of her teeth in the incident, she was back in the saddle in a matter of days. Hard as nails doesn’t even cover it.
On December 5, Hollie Doyle registered a record 107th success in a calendar year for a British female jockey. It is only two years since Josephine Gordon had reached 106 herself, so it is clear that this category is gaining momentum fast.
Hollie Doyle
Hard as nails
While the focus in some quarters of the British media was on what Doyle had achieved as a woman in the saddle, there is more pertinently the question of what supreme toughness and durability can bring allied with natural riding ability.
Measured at only five foot, or just over 1.5 metres, the Herefordshire-raised daughter of rider Mark Doyle is hewn from uncommon granite.
Working under the well-respected trainer and taskmaster David Evans for two years, Doyle earned the ultimate stripes in hard graft and after that baptism of fire things have generally fallen into place. Aside from some episodes of concussion and a seizure, that she brushes off as par for the course, she rode her first winner on her first ride in May 2013.
Eventually taking up with the Richard Hannon stable, she partnered Billesdon Bess (GB) (Dick Turpin {Ire}), the half-sister to the Classic heroine Billesdon Brook (GB) (Champs Elysees {GB}), to success in the Listed Upavon S. at Salisbury in August 2017. Her insatiable appetite had only begun to be partly nourished.
This is no character who calls on special terms, just a natural-born competitor who sees no reason to concede to any obstacle. Granted no easy start, the ex-pony racer has climbed her way through the ranks with a remarkable persistence.
Anybody who watched the last-ditch victory of Class Clown (Ire) (Intense Focus {USA}) on that ground-breaking night at Southwell will not need it spelling out that Doyle is a proper die-hard. That horse was beaten everywhere bar the final 20 yards, but that was where the extra magic came into play and the record was sealed.
Yet afterwards, she retained the kind of humility that will see her charge towards the goal of champion jockey outright one day.
Trainer Archie Watson has seen upfront what she is capable of on a daily basis, in the yard and at the racecourse, and will be followed by several other trainers who see the merit in her combination of enthusiasm, ambition, skill and unflinching resistance.
Holding her own
She was 13th in the British Flat Jockeys’ Championship of 2019. Despite the gloomy findings and prognostics of the 14-year University of Liverpool study into the opportunities for women jockeys opposed to those for men, the times thankfully are a changing.
France’s move in March 2017 to hand women a significant weight allowance has made an impact there, but there is no concession in Britain and yet Doyle has proven it is possible to infiltrate the male-dominated elite.
Hollie Doyle guides Shades Of Blue (Ire) to victory
There have been four wins at Listed stakes level since Billesdon Bess, with the latest coming in Newmarket’s Aphrodite S. in July on the highly-talented filly Dame Malliot (GB) (Champs Elysees {GB}). That stylish display of perfect pace-reading followed a driving finish on the sprinter Shades Of Blue (Ire) (Kodiac {GB}) in Maisons-Laffitte’s Prix Hampton in June, where again her tenacity in the saddle paid off.
While she will never rest to enjoy the position of carrying the banner for all that follow, her achievements from here will act as a wrecking ball to the established order. Onwards and upwards for Hollie Doyle.
