Jockey Hollie Doyle rode her first winner on her very first ride, The Mongoose, in a lady amateur riders’ handicap at Salisbury on May 5, 2013, at the age of 16. Some would put that in the same bracket as those who have beginners luck on online casinos. In fact to push home that point she rode just three winners that season and, having become apprenticed to Richard Hannon, rode just one winner in 2014 and just two in 2015. Indeed, it was not until 2017 that she rode out her claim and became a fully-fledged professional jockey.
Nevertheless, her rise through the ranks has been nothing short of meteoric. In 2018, she rode a highly respectable 54 winners, but the following year rode 116, breaking the previous record for the most winners in a calendar year, 106, set by Josephine Gordon in 2017. In 2020, she broke her own record with 151 winners; highlights included her first Group race winner, her first Group 1 winner, a retainer with owner Imad Al Sagar and a five-timer at Windsor. Doyle finished fourth in the Flat Jockeys’ Championship and was named ‘Sportswoman of the Year’ by the ‘Sunday Times’.
Doyle began 2021 in similar vein, riding another five-timer at Kempton on March 3. At the time of writing, less than three weeks into the Flat Jockeys’ Championship – which, nowadays, does not start until the Guineas Festival at Newmaket – she lies joint-fifth in the table with 10 winners from 60 rides, at a strike rate of 17%. As far as the jockeys’ title is concerned, Doyle is a top-priced 6/1 to become the first female champion jockey in British racing history.
Female jockeys are impressing around the world now really, from the likes of former trendsetter and two time Kentucky Oaks winner Rosie Napravnik in the USA to leading group one winner Michelle Payne in Australia. Prior to recent years whenever you heard of racing or gambling in general such best australia online casino guides, it was all geared towards men. It’s more than apparent though, from the UK examples and others, that ability was never the impediment to recognition and success. It was instead age old prejudices that are thankfully slowly ebbing away. About time too.
