Jockey Hollie Doyle enjoys dream end to the season with first Group One victory and boyfriend Tom Marquand triumphs twice on Champions Day
- Doyle landed her first Group one success with Glen Shiel on Saturday
- Doyle also won the Group Two Long Distance Cup on Trueshan at Ascot
- Marquand triumphed in the day’s big race, the Champion Stakes, on Addeybb
British Champions Day at Ascot topped off a dream season for jockey Hollie Doyle when she won two of the six races including the first Group One victory of her career on Glen Shiel in the Champion Sprint Stakes.
Doyle also won the Group Two Long Distance Cup on Trueshan and was second in the Group One Fillies & Mares Stakes on Dame Malliot.
Her partner Tom Marquand put the seal on what has been a golden season for him, too, with a two-and-a-quarter-length win on Addeyybb in the feature Champion Stakes plus a two-and-a-quarter-length success on Jessica Harrington-trained Njord in the Balmoral Handicap.
Record-breaking jockey Hollie Doyle and Glen Shiel took the British Champions Sprint Stakes
Doyle cut out most of the running on Archie Watson-trained 16-1 shot Glen Shiel but had to galvanise him to find more after being headed in the final furlong by Oxted before holding off 80-1 Brando by a nose.
Doyle said: ‘I am in shock. It was too close for comfort. I am delighted I’ve done it on one of Archie’s horses because he has been a huge supporter.’
Reflecting on her dream season, Doyle added: ‘It’s been a bit of whirlwind. My aim at the start of the year was to ride a Group winner and I said a Group One would come one day. I didn’t think it would come this year.’ She joins Hayley Turner and Alex Greaves as British Group One-winning female Flat jockeys.
Tom Marquand triumphed in the day’s big race, the Champion Stakes, on Addeybb
Having also been signed up as the No 1 jockey for Derby-winning owner Imad Al Sagar, Doyle can look forward to more big opportunities.
She is the first female jockey to hold a genuine chance of becoming champion jockey. She stands fourth in the standings behind reigning champion Oisin Murphy and one place behind Marquand. He had to chase his girlfriend home until the William Haggas-trained Addeyybb struck. A real red-letter day for Doyle and Marquand but one to forget for the John Gosden-Frankie Dettori combo.
Stradivarius beat only one of the 13 starters in the Long Distance Cup, with Gosden saying he was unable to act in the testing Ascot going, and Mishriff was only eighth in the Champion Stakes.
Their odds-on favourite Palace Pier lost a shoe and his unbeaten record when beaten over three lengths in third in the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes by The Revenant.
