Hollie Doyle Celebrates 1,000 Domestic Winners at Lingfield

[Wandering Eyes]

Hollie Doyle brought up a landmark 1,000th domestic career winner when partnering the Marco Botti-trained Handle With Care (GB) (Advertise {GB}) to victory in the opening six-furlong fillies' handicap at Lingfield on Monday.

“I'm delighted to have got that done,” Doyle told Sky Sports Racing. “It's another milestone and hopefully there's another 1,000 under the bonnet somewhere!

“I've had so much support over the years, so many people have been loyal to me, especially Archie [Watson]. Since I joined him, my career has really taken off. And Marco has also been a big supporter of mine, so it's quite fitting.”

Doyle, whose first ride was a winning one when teaming up with The Mongoose in a lady riders' contest at Salisbury in May 2013, served her apprenticeship with Richard Hannon, before joining the Watson team in 2019.

That year Doyle became the third woman to ride more than 100 winners in a single season on the Flat, after Hayley Turner and Josephine Gordon, with her annual tally of 116 winners seeing her break the latter's record of 106. She later recorded a new personal-best total of 172 winners in 2021, while it was in September last year that she made it to 1,000 career winners worldwide.

Another landmark year in Doyle's career came in 2020 as she celebrated her first Royal Ascot winner when Alan King's Scarlet Dragon landed the Duke Of Edinburgh Stakes. She also rode a five-timer at Windsor, secured her first Group-race success on Dame Maillot in the G2 Princess Of Wales's Stakes and became retained rider for Derby-winning owner Imad Al Sagar.

Perhaps even more significantly, Doyle became the first woman to ride a winner on Qipco British Champions Day at Ascot when Trueshan gained the first of his three victories in the G2 Long Distance Cup, before recording a landmark first Group 1 success when making it a double on Glen Shiel in the Champions Sprint Stakes.

Wider recognition for Doyle's remarkable achievements followed later in 2020 when she was crowned the Sunday Times Sportswoman of the Year, while she also took third place–behind Formula One ace Lewis Hamilton and Liverpool captain Jordan Henderson–in the BBC Sports Personality of the Year award.

More recently, Doyle has also enjoyed successful associations with the likes of Nashwa and Bradsell, who are responsible for six of the rider's 10 Group 1 victories between them. Most notably, Nashwa's three wins at the top level included the 2022 Prix de Diane when she became Doyle's first European Classic winner.

“It's crazy–I struggle to believe some of the things I've achieved and I'm pretty sure a lot of other people do as well,” Doyle added. “It's amazing and I just need to keep going.”

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