Marquand hails recordbreaking ‘grafter’ Doyle
TOM Marquand has hailed girlfriend Hollie Doyle’s achievement of setting a second successive record of winners in a calendar year for a female jockey as “remarkable”.
Doyle rode her 117th winner of 2020 at Kempton on Wednesday night and her partner Marquand, who has himself enjoyed a stellar year in gaining his first Classic in the St Leger on Galileo Chrome, believes the best is yet to come.
“I can’t imagine there are more than four or five other jockeys that are over 100 winners for the year so far. It is remarkable,” he said. “She was hoping that by staying for the winter she would be able to carry that momentum through, but then stopping racing for nearly three months completely knocked that on the head and we were sat at home thinking ‘What is going to happen when racing gets going again?’.
“Neither of us were retained at the time and we weren’t sure how it would go once racing started, as we thought it would favour the retained jockeys with the one meeting a day rule as they would be able to pick and choose their rides, but she has just come out the gates flying.
“She has continually gone winner after winner. She has hit personal landmarks as well, after riding her first Group winner and becoming the first women jockey to ride a fivetimer in Britain. Even this record largely goes over her head.
“Her main worry was that not many people can back up riding 100 winners in a year time and time again, and she has shown this year that she has not only been able to do that, but she has obliterated it.
“It is a credit to her grafting and nothing else. There are no secret tricks going on behind the scenes. She is just riding out every day, going racing and turning up in the best shape she can. She is in a great position as she has a fantastic job with Archie (Watson) and with Imad Al Sagar (retained owner).
“Her career is building hand over fist. She turned 24 on Sunday and you would like to think there is a good chunk of her career left.”