Hollie Doyle rides 1,000th domestic winner and hopes to hit 2,000

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Hollie Doyle continues to make her case as the best British female jockey of all time. Having ridden her 1,000th global winner in September 2024, she has gone on to become only the second female jockey to achieve the same feat in British races. 

Doyle achieved the milestone while riding Handle with Care to victory at Lingfield this Monday. The seasoned jockey looks certain to surpass Hayley Turner’s 1,041 British career wins and has the opportunity to add to her tally later this week.

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Handle with Care ran home the 4/1 winner in the 13:47 at Lingfield on Monday, beating the 10/11 favourite So Sassy. In riding the Paul Hunt-owned horse to victory, Doyle became the second female jockey to ride 1,000 winners in British races, behind Turner. 

After the victory, she said: “It’s another milestone and hopefully there’s another 1,000 under the bonnet somewhere.”

Doyle comes from a racing pedigree. Her father, Mark Doyle, and mother, Caroline Doyle, are both former jockeys themselves and Doyle competed in her first pony race at the age of nine. 

During her first year as an apprentice, in 2014, Doyle rode a single winner from 44 rides. But, she rode out her claim in November 2017, shortly after claiming her first listed win in August of the same year. 

In 2019, Doyle rode 116 victories, setting a record for the most number of winners in a year in British races, before breaking the record in 2020. 

In August 2020, Doyle became the first female jockey to win five races in a single card when she rode five winners at Windsor. In the same year, she also became the first female to ride a winner at Ascot’s Champions Day and bagged her first Group 1 win. 

These achievements awarded her a lot of recognition as she was named The Sunday Times Sportswoman of the Year in 2020, and she also placed third in the BBC Sports Personality of the Year 2020. 

Amongst her many other accolades, Doyle came joint second in the 2022 flat jockeys’ championship, when she tied with husband Tom Marquand. 

When asked about her career achievements, she said: “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. It’s amazing, I just need to keep going.” 

Doyle will have the opportunity to add to her victory tally later this week when she is set to ride Port Erin, Sweet Fantastic and Knights Gold at Kempton. 

She also has confirmed rides at Wolverhampton on Thursday 27 March and Lingfield on Friday 28 March.

In her quest to become the most highly decorated British rider, Doyle will need to overcome Turner, although the achievement isn’t far away. 

Turner reached the 1,000 victory milestone in November 2023 and went on to ride another 41 winners before retiring for a second time. 

After a series of injuries, Turner originally retired at the end of the 2015 season before returning to full-time racing in 2018. 

So far this season, Turner has competed in 59 races and picked up nine victories, while Doyle has ridden 153 races, winning 16.