Hollie Doyle races to century of winners at Sandown

PA Sport Reporters
September 11, 2020 1:38 pm

Landmark win comes aboard Sir Michael Stoute-trained Maximal.

Hollie Doyle raced to 100 winners for the year with victory aboard Maximal at Sandown Park on Friday.

Doyle, 23, steered the Sir Michael Stoute-trained colt to a dominant success in the British Stallion Studs EBF Novice Stakes, with the Khalid Abdullah-owned youngster making it third time lucky after previously finished second at Newbury in July and at this venue last month.

The result was scarcely in doubt, with 2-7 favourite taking over the running early in the home straight and readily pulling five lengths clear of Toromona.

Hollie Doyle returns victorious after an impressive ride on board Maximal in the @BritishEBF Novice Stakes 👏 pic.twitter.com/E1nW3fNOLG
— Sandown Park (@Sandownpark) September 11, 2020

Doyle told Racing TV: “It was a great performance. He jumped smartly and travelled well.

“He didn’t do a whole lot early on and didn’t realise he was in the race until the two furlong pole when I put him eyeball to eyeball with the leader. After that he grabbed hold of the bridle and took me away.”

Doyle was reaching her century much quicker than in 2019, when she got to three figures at Chelmsford on November 21 – and that is despite racing being forced to shut down for almost three months due to the coronavirus pandemic.

She went on to break Josephine Gordon’s record of 106 winners for a female jockey and ended 2019 with a total of 116.

Hollie Doyle following the victory of Dame Malliot at Newmarket (David Davies/PA)

Doyle’s burgeoning career has reached even greater heights this season, with a first Royal Ascot success aboard Scarlet Dragon in the Duke of Edinburgh Stakes followed by a maiden Group-race win aboard Ed Vaughan’s Dame Malliot in the Princess of Wales’s Stakes at Newmarket.

The record-breaking rider has since been signed up as retained rider for leading owner Imad Al Sagar and competed in a Group One for the first time when third aboard Dame Malliot in Germany.

Even more recently Doyle became the first female jockey to ride five winners in one day at Windsor and went close to a Group One success when runner-up on Glen Shiel in the Betfair Sprint Cup at Haydock.