Doyle confirmed as BBC Sports Personality contender

Record-breaking jockey is fourth of six to be short-listed.

Hollie Doyle may be in line to crown her brilliant year with another major accolade after being named as a nominee for the 2020 BBC Sports Personality of the Year award.

Doyle joins a list which will contain six household names in all – including Formula One’s Lewis Hamilton and cricket’s Stuart Broad, already announced – who could win the prestigious award when the public votes for its favourite British sports star of the year on December 20.

The 24-year-old becomes the first nomination from the world of racing since Sir Anthony McCoy – the sport’s only winner of the award to date in 2010, and also twice third, in 2002 and 2013.

Doyle has already had an unforgettable year, most recently winning the coveted Sunday Times Sportswoman of the Year award last month.

Among her achievements over the past 11 months, Doyle broke her own record for the most winners in a calendar year by a female jockey when she reached 117 in October, finished fourth in this year’s race for the Flat jockeys’ championship – and rode five winners on the same card, at odds of 899-1 at Windsor in August.

She went on to pull off a brilliant Champions Day double at Ascot in that same month – including her first victory at Group One level as Glen Shiel clung on by a nose in the British Champions Sprint.

Doyle also claimed her first Royal Ascot win aboard Scarlet Dragon, and more recently was on her travels to ride at the Breeders’ Cup in America for the first time and in the Bahrain International Trophy.

On hearing she was on the BBC’s short-list, she said: “It is a huge privilege to be nominated for such an illustrious award.

“It’s hard to get my head around being nominated alongside the likes of Lewis Hamilton, but I’m really pleased that horse racing has been recognised alongside these sports.

“Racing can be in its own little bubble as such, so hopefully this might help to open the door to a wider audience.”

McCoy, who was also honoured with a BBC lifetime achievement award in 2015, added: “Hollie has got on with her job quietly, confidently, and successfully.

“She seems more interested in walking the walk than talking the talk.

“She lets her achievements do the talking, and there’s a lot to learn from Hollie. She keeps her head down, she works hard and understands the need to make herself better all the time.

“Honestly, I’m a little bit jealous of her – a thoroughly deserved nomination.”

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