HOLLIE’S GOT IT ALL!
GAY Kelleway says Hollie Doyle is ‘ the whole package’ and a rider capable of breaking glass ceilings for female Flat jockeys in Britain.
In June, Doyle became only the second female jockey to ride a winner at Royal Ascot when Scarlet Dragon won the Duke of Edinburgh Stakes, 33 years after trailblazing jockey turnedtrainer Kelleway landed the Queen Alexandra Stakes on Sprowston Boy.
Kelleway reckons British racing might have found the first female with a genuine chance of being champion jockey.
Kelleway, whose Global Esteem was part of a Doyleridden treble at Yarmouth on Sunday, said: ‘I don’t look at Hollie as a female jockey. She has natural ability, she gets horses to settle, puts them in great positions in a race, gives her all and is very brave.
‘Not all jockeys are, some are a bit windy and won’t be getting rides from me. Hollie can get on a difficult horse and she won’t flinch. That’s why I believe Hollie is the whole package. She is not driven by money but her passion for horses.
‘But what I admire the most is her work ethic. Trainer Richard Hannon told me that when she was an apprentice with him, she would always get back to his stable — if she could after riding — to muck out and look after her horses.
‘Now she is on a par with any of the top jockeys, including Ryan Moore, but as a woman you have to try that bit harder to get established.
‘I have been in the sport for 40-odd years and I have seen a lot of jockeys and I watch a lot of racing. I’ve seen Hollie come through the ranks. She has got better and better.’
After becoming the first female jockey to win five races on a card at Windsor, Doyle will break more fresh ground with her first ride in a British Group One race on Archie Watson-trained Glen Shiel in tomorrow’s Betfair Sprint Cup at Haydock.
It will be the latest in a series of quick-fire landmarks for the 23-year-old rider, who in 2019 set a new record for a British female jockey with 116 wins in a year.
Despite a disrupted year, Doyle, who landed her first group win with Dame Malliot in the Group Two Princess of Wales’s Stakes at Newmarket in July, is already on 97 winners for 2020 and fifth in the jockeys’ championship.
The support of Watson, a rising star of the trainer ranks, has been key but arguably the most significant moment of Doyle’s year was being appointed retained jockey to Derby-winning owner Imad Al Sagar last month.
Al Sagar owns Roger Charlton- trained Extra Elusive, who won the Group Three Winter Hill Stakes last Saturday, and John Gosden-trained Faisal, who won at Wolverhampton on Wednesday.
Classic-winning jockey and pundit Jason Weaver said: ‘Hollie’s new retainer will also mean better horses. Archie is no mug. He is a young trainer who has burst on to the scene and achieved a lot in a short space of time. He recognised how good Hollie is and has used her fantastically.
‘She is starting to believe in herself. You have to at the highest level.’