Doyle, Geldings, shepherd & AMBIENTE fRIENDLY.

​To my amazement, and perhaps to her own amazement, in riding a double at Goodwood yesterday, Hollie Doyle racked-up the thousandth winner of her career. Within that one-thousand, she has accumulated 31 Group and listed races. When you consider that it took Hayley Turner until 2024 to achieve one-thousand winners, Hollie’s achievement is quite remarkable.
I cannot be confident but Hollie Doyle must be the most successful female flat jockey of all-time. I know Julie Craze was ultra successful back in the day in the U.S. and Emma-Jayne Wilson equally so in Canada, yet I feel Hollie has surpassed them, and if the stats suggest otherwise, by the end of her career Hollie will have the stats firmly in her favour.
Three-years ago I commented on a Racing Channel (?) film on the career of Willie Carson that he was the most under-rated champion jockey of my lifetime and that the current jockey who reminded me of him was Hollie Doyle. This was three-years ago, remember, and several people thought I was deluded. A few weeks ago, I received an e-mail from one of those people apologising for his comments and admitting that I was, after-all, right in my opinion. Hollie has now silenced the doubters, while winning the hearts of the racing public.
Archie Watson’s support has been vital in getting Hollie to where she is today. No matter how talented a rider is, male or female, to make it to the top sphere of the championship – Hollie is currently eighth, with Saffie Osborne one place above her – dedication has to be grafted to loyalty from trainers and owners and Hollie cannot complain on that score. Not that I can see kind-hearted Holly having many complaints about her life. She will travel to all points of the country to ride a horse trained by Archie Watson, no doubt turning down a book of rides at another meeting. Imad Alsagar, to whom she is retained, comes first, followed by horses trained by Archie Watson.
She deserves her success and I am sure there is more to follow. As I commented many years before Doyle and Osborne came on the scene, the sport can only benefit from having female jockeys given opportunities at the highest level and the two mentioned above have proved themselves amongst the top jockeys in the country. It is good that the perception change brought about by Hayley will now endure down the ages.

It seems likely that in the future geldings may be allowed to run the Arc as the French authorities are to debate the matter, with a lot of support, apparently, for removing the restriction. The Arc, along with the classics, may be races designed for the benefit of breeders, to establish the best of the best, yet if there is a gelding better than the classic crop then it must be more beneficial to everyone to have it proved on the racecourse. Too many times colts go to stud on inflated ratings brought-out by a lack of opposition. If a gelding should go and win three Arcs, for instance, which is more likely than a colt winning the race three-times, beating one or two of the previous classic generation, it will provide a metric for assessing the merit of that classic generation. I am all in favour of allowing geldings into all Group 1’s, including the classics.

Callum Shepherd’s ban is overturned, which is a relief to the jockey and the right result for the sport, even if I do not agree that he lost his balance in the last stride of the race. I suggested his ban would be reduced thoughI did not expect his appeal to be 100% successful, though I am pleased he won the day.

Finally, over-all I like the Gredley family, though I still believe they were wrong to jock-off Callum Shepherd in favour of Rab Havlin, a jockey of the same status as Shepherd. Now Havlin has received the heave-ho in favour of Christophe Soumillion, and they are returning to 12-furlongs, with their thoughts moving back to a possible tilt at the Arc. I believe the horse is a 12-furlong horse; he just is not a genuine Group 1 horse. Winning in France in the coming days will not either prove or disprove my opinion as it is a lesser grade race, though winning the Arc would prove me both right and wrong at the same time.