‘It’s crazy but I don’t want this to be my best year’
MAKING SPOTY SHORTLIST IS NOT THE HEIGHT OF HOLLIE’S RACING AMBITIONS
IT TAKES a lot to knock Hollie Doyle out of her stride, but the rising star of British flat racing still can’t get her head around being included on the six-strong shortlist for BBC Sports Personality of the Year.
‘Absolute madness’, ‘gobsmacked’, ‘a massive surprise’ are just some of the words she uses to describe seeing her name alongside such luminaries as Lewis Hamilton, Jordan Henderson and Stuart Broad.
‘I pinch myself really, I think it’s crazy but I’m honoured people have noticed what I’ve been doing this year,’ 24-year-old Doyle, the only female contender for the 2020 award, tells Metro.
That her achievements have been recognised should not come as a surprise given her trailblazing year in the saddle.
Doyle, named 2020 Sunday Times Sportswoman of the Year only last month, broke her own record set in 2019 (116) for winners by a woman during a calendar year in Britain and is currently on 145 wins for 2020 – all the more impressive considering the sport was shut down for
76 days due to coronavirus.
She also finished fourth in the 2020 Flat Jockeys’ Championship, the high
est-ever placing by a woman and became the first female to ride five winners on the same card at Windsor in August.
Earlier in the year she enjoyed her first Royal Ascot winner and dominated Britain’s most valuable raceday, British Champions Day in October, emerging as leading rider at Ascot with two winners and two second places.
To top that off, Doyle and her partner – fellow jockey Tom Marquand – have just returned from riding at a prestigious meeting in Hong Kong. She will finally get an opportunity to take in her achievements as well as unwinding a little over the festive period. ‘I haven’t had a chance to take it all in yet, I’ve been flat out. I’ve got a few days off over Christmas with the family which will be really nice. I’ll reflect then maybe,’ she says.
‘I never envisaged having the year I’ve had. Things have happened very quickly this year but I don’t want it to stop there, I have got bigger and better ambitions to come, I hope. I don’t want this to be my best-ever year.
‘I’m quite motivated and once I had that little taste of success I really strive for more.’ Doyle has had that desire ever since she left school ‘with no plan B’.
‘I needed to make this work,’ she admits. ‘If I didn’t succeed in this I really don’t know what else I would be doing.
‘I had no other interests in school, I always wanted to be a jockey. I was told at school I needed a back-up plan but I completely ignored everything that was advised. [But] I didn’t think I’d ever be good enough or in a position to do what I’ve done.
‘I am just very thankful. I do think I’ve had a lot of luck along the way. You have to be very resilient.’
BBC Sports Personality of the Year is on BBC One from 8pm on Sunday, December 20