Latest news with #HollieDoyle
Telegraph
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
Hollie Doyle interview: It is ridiculous jockeys cannot use saunas to make weight
Hollie Doyle became the most successful female British Flat jockey in May when she rode her 1,023rd winner, surpassing the previous best held by the recently retired Hayley Turner. Here the 28-year-old talks clocking up miles in the car, pony rallies and taking ice baths… Who is the person you'd most like to meet, dead or alive? Sir Henry Cecil. He was a fascinating character and great trainer. He was very intuitive with his horses. I'd love to have been on the scene when he was training and, even better, to have ridden for him. He'd be a bit similar to Sir Michael Stoute, I imagine, just fascinating. Describe yourself in three words. Determined, small, resilient. What is your dream three-course meal and dinner guests? Starters would be scallops, the main would be steak and jam roly-poly for pudding. I'd invite Tom [Marquand, husband and a fellow jockey], Jonny Wilkinson, Jessica Ennis-Hill and Lester Piggott. If you could have one superpower, what would it be? I'd like to fly so I don't have to drive everywhere and get stuck in traffic every day. I do a lot of miles. I bought my car, a BMW 5 Series, two-and-a-half years ago with 4,000 miles on the clock. It's done nearly 150,000 now and I haven't been here during the winters. What is the one rule you would like to change in your sport? Even though I don't need to use one, I'd bring back saunas [jockeys used them to make weight but they were banned from racecourses in 2021]. It's hard to watch everyone, including Tom, suffering every day and not being able to go and lose a pound or two. Sometimes they will have driven four hours and they have to run round the track. We have one at home. It's ridiculous not being able to use them in a sport where you have to make a weight. What is your worst habit? Not being able to switch off and always being on the go, always doing something. I don't relax, I need to be doing something the whole time or be thinking about something. I don't even think I switch off when I'm asleep, to be honest. What is your most embarrassing moment? I ended up carrying a bottle of shampoo into the paddock instead of my stick once. I drove up to Carlisle after riding out six lots when I was a 7lb claimer. I was so tired I couldn't even see straight. I walked into the paddock and it was only when I went to shake the owner's hand that I noticed. I had to rush back to the weighing room and change it. If you could switch lives with anyone in the world for a day, who would it be? I'd like to switch lives with [jockey] Ryan Moore on one of the days at Royal Ascot. What is your favourite childhood memory? Probably going to the Radnor and West Hereford Pony Club rallies once a week on my pony Jerry in the summer, falling off and not giving a care; getting milled and then getting up smiling. If you could go on any reality TV show, what would it be? I'm a Celebrity… Even though I don't consider myself a celebrity. Do you prefer a night in or a night out? A night in on my own being able to eat what I want and watch what I want on the television. Tom has the controls when he's there so, obviously, it's why I'd be on my own. What is the best concert you have been to? I've only been to two, Eminem and Coldplay, and I think Eminem was better. What is your karaoke song? Amy Winehouse's Valerie. What is the most ridiculous thing you have ever bought? I'm not sure whether it's the most ridiculous or the most practical. Tom bought me a robot hoover floor cleaner. I'm really bad about any dirt and dust about the house so this goes all day when I'm not there and everything's clean when I get home. It's perfect. You probably couldn't get a better present for me. If you had a time machine, would you go back in time or go to the future? I'd go back to see people and family who have died. What is the best advice you have ever received? Be seen and not heard. From my father. What has been your favourite holiday? Skiing. We went in Japan once a couple of years ago when we were both riding out there one winter and the snow was unreal. It was up to my neck. The only trouble was that it was -20, which took the edge off it a bit. We didn't go this year, which was a pity, but we try to go most years. What is the best book you have ever read? And what is your favourite TV show? I'm not a huge reading fan, the occasional autobiography, but I like Yellowstone, the US television series about a family of cattle ranchers and the dramas in their lives. If you were not a sportsperson, what would you be doing? A vet working with horses. If the qualifications were a problem, I'd probably be a personal trainer. I do something in the gym every day and I do weights three times a week. We have a gym at our new house along with an ice bath, hot tub and sauna. I do a maximum three minutes most days in the ice bath, Tom does up to 10 minutes.
The Guardian
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Hollie Doyle: ‘I just want to be the best jockey – I don't compare myself to female riders'
'I'm obsessed with winning,' Hollie Doyle says calmly in response to a suggestion that she seems consumed by racing, 'but I do love horses as well. So that helps, doesn't it?' The most successful female jockey in British racing history had begun our interview with an impressively crunching handshake. Doyle's cheerfully powerful greeting confirmed that her small but muscled frame ripples with the strength of a supreme jockey absorbed in the singular world of racing. But her daily grind is elevated by more than a thousand victories in the saddle. Doyle offers a grimace of a smile when I ask if she is anything like AP McCoy, the great jump jockey, who said that the elation of a winner usually lasted less than a minute before he felt compelled to look ahead to his next fix of a victory. 'Yes, unfortunately I am like that,' Doyle says in the shade of an oak tree before a sunlit evening of racing at Sandown. 'I wish I wasn't, because it's a shame. Nothing lasts for ever and I'm sure when I'm 50 or 60 I'll look back on what I've done and think: 'I should have enjoyed that a bit more.' But I'm just so driven by winning that, when I cross the line in front I think: 'Job done, what's next?'' The 28-year-old rode her 1,000th winner in Britain on Handle With Care at Lingfield in March. She became only the second woman jockey, after Hayley Turner, to reach that milestone. Seven weeks later Doyle broke Turner's record when romping past the winning post first on Brindavan at Ascot. Winner number 1,023 established her place at the summit for female jockeys but, as Doyle says, that title is largely meaningless compared to the championship she wants most. Did her 1,000th winner feel the more significant landmark? 'Yes, I think so. I wanted to get to 1,000 because for any jockey it's a good milestone. It was nice to break Hayley's record but it wasn't something where I'd said: 'I want to take her record.' I don't see myself as a top female jockey. I just see myself as a jockey.' As Doyle prepares to ride at Royal Ascot from Tuesday, she adds: 'I just want to be the best jockey. I don't compare myself to other females and I never did when I was growing up. Obviously I was aware of Hayley but I looked up to AP McCoy, Ryan Moore and Kieren Fallon.' Her greatest racing desire is to eventually become champion jockey. 'You must have a burning ambition,' Doyle suggests, 'and that's mine. I will do everything possible to be the best rider I can to put me in a position that, if I ever get the opportunity, I'll do it.' In 2022 she and her husband, Tom Marquand, finished tied-second in the jockeys' championship. They both recorded 91 winners but were distant runners-up to William Buick – the champion with 66 more wins. 'It sounds great being second,' Doyle says, 'but we were quite far behind and the competition is only going to get tougher. As long as William and Oisin [Murphy] are riding, it's going to be hard for anyone to beat them.' Murphy won the title last year and, two months into this season, he is streaking ahead on 43 winners, with Buick on 28. Doyle is currently on 15 and she concedes that another tilt at the championship is unlikely this year. 'I'm trying, but I haven't got a lot up my sleeve. There's not really much I can do right now. You've got your connections and one year they might not have a good season. The next year they might have an amazing one and you might fly. It's not completely out of your hands but you definitely need that big yard behind you. 'I'm really lucky I'm attached to [trainer] Archie Watson who has got 100 horses. But Oisin Murphy's attached to Andrew Balding, William Buick to Charlie Appleby. They have got 300 horses each so it makes a difference. Obviously they're very good jockeys as well. I'm working hard in the mornings and I physically can't do any more. I'm just trying to concentrate on riding winners.' Will Doyle, or any other future female jockey, ever become the stable jockey for a dominant yard? 'I wouldn't say no if the opportunity came about but I don't know if it would. Probably not. The people that have those jobs now hang around. You can only keep dreaming but I'm happy with what I've got.' Doyle has had memorable Group One wins, the first of which was on Watson's Glen Shiel on Champions Day in 2020. She also finished third in the BBC's Sports Personality of the Year but it was far sweeter that, the following year, she won the Goodwood Cup on Trueshan and best of all, in 2022, the Prix de Diane [the French Oaks] on Nashwa. Doyle craves winning a British Classic but an indication of the odds against her is that she has to yet to ride in the Derby – the race she would most love to win. 'Obviously as a jockey you want to win the Derby and the Arc and you want to be champion. They're the three main targets.' If she could only achieve one of these, Doyle would choose becoming champion jockey. But I wonder if, with none of her connections having produced a Derby ride for her so far, she avoids watching the race? 'Oh no, I love watching it. It sends tingles down my spine watching someone win the Derby or the Arc. It's a dream, isn't it? You can only relate to how they must feel when they've won.' There is no bitterness because Doyle feels huge gratitude to Watson, the trainer who has done so much for her. Watson stood up for Doyle when some of his owners didn't want 'this little girl' riding for them. 'He wouldn't directly tell me, but I knew,' Doyle reveals. 'I'm not stupid. I can tell when I'm not wanted. I thought: 'Whatever. I'll prove you wrong.' I suspect I've changed a few mindsets since then.' Doyle was never affected by such antiquated attitudes in the weighing room. 'I've always got on with everyone, really,' she says with a little smile, 'and I've always stood up for myself from a young age. You have to stand your ground but hold your hands up when you're wrong. It's just the weighing room culture.' Despite Doyle's outstanding success it's still difficult for female jockeys in British racing. 'It's hard for anyone trying to make it in racing and that's the same in any sport or any walk of life. I think that because there aren't as many females riding at a higher level it's focused on more. But, realistically, if you're not good enough, you won't make it. I know in some other disciplines people get promoted because they need to meet the criteria. People say we need a female to do this to make it look like that. In racing it's decided on pure ability.' Sign up to The Recap The best of our sports journalism from the past seven days and a heads-up on the weekend's action after newsletter promotion As a schoolgirl Doyle was certain that there was nothing else in life she wanted more than to become a professional jockey. She laughs when I ask her if she was ever offered career guidance by a well-meaning teacher. 'Not really. It was a bit of a lost cause. I was kind of stubborn. There was no other option for me. I wanted to be a jockey.' Yet she was tested when she broke into racing at 16. 'I was pretty hard on myself,' she remembers. 'I was brought up with tough love rather than being told I was the best in the world. Both of my parents just wanted me to get on with it rather than telling me: 'You're the best thing since sliced bread, you're amazing.' Even when I was doing all right, there was none of that. You don't need all that carry on.' Doyle explains that, 'I always knew I could do it, but there was one time where I thought: 'Maybe I'm no good?' I got it in my head a bit too much at one point.' How did she change? 'I started doing weights and going to the gym. It really helped because I realised I am strong and I can do this. And then I just portrayed it on the horse. I wouldn't change anything now even if, looking back, I had some really tough times. It was probably hardest when I was at Dave Evans's yard. I was just very young and immature but it's worked out and I try not to look back too much.' Did she allow herself to linger over her three winners at Royal Ascot in 2023? 'With the first one I thought: 'Great, I've got one on the board.' But the other two came and it was just: 'This is my job.' Obviously it was great as I had my family there but I got back in the evening, had some tea and went to bed, woke up, rode out, went racing. Every day is the same, seven days a week, so there's no time to celebrate.' Doyle even feels guilty on her rare days away from racing. 'I do. Days off don't come around very often. I long for one sometimes and I get one and I'm completely lost. What am I going to do? I'm not normal, but I'm just not used to being out of my routine. My last day off was more than a month ago, for Tom's granny's funeral. I couldn't tell you when the next one is.' She pins her remorseless work ethic to 'the fear of missing out. I don't want to miss a winner. I've worked so hard to get on the horses, I'm not going to turn any down. If you do, someone else will come in and you're not going to ride it again. It's very cut-throat, racing.' How does she switch off away from the track? 'I like tootling around, doing my own thing at home. I'm a bit of a lone warrior. I'm not very sociable.' While Doyle is at Sandown, her husband is 'at Yarmouth today. Some weeks we're never at the same meeting. It doesn't really make a difference because when we're at work, we're at work. It's not like we're spending time together.' Doyle stresses how happy she and Marquand are and that 'we moved house recently and bought a nice place with a big garden, a bit of room. It gives me a few more jobs. We're a good team but we like doing things ourselves.' She adds that 'we really want kids one day. Obviously it's not on the radar at the moment, but I'm not getting any younger. I'd like to think I've got quite a few more years left in me. Anyway, I honestly don't know if, after having a kid I'd say: 'That's me done.'' Does Doyle fear the end of her racing career? 'Yes,' she says, before breaking into another smile. 'Obviously I couldn't tell you what I would do if I wasn't working. I'd have to have something lined up straight away to jump into, because I'm not very good at not doing a lot.'
South Wales Guardian
07-06-2025
- Sport
- South Wales Guardian
Jm Jungle gains ‘deserved' sprint prize for John and Sean Quinn
Ultra-consistent, he picked up a nice prize at York last summer and had been back in action on the Knavesmire just seven days prior to this when a beaten favourite into third. This time he was always travelling strongly for Jason Hart and while Hollie Doyle had the favoured rail on Spartan Arrow, Jm Jungle (7-1) came down the middle of the track to win by half a length. Quinn said: 'He's been running really well and you don't always get what you deserve in life but he's probably deserved that. 'This year he has run into a couple of well-handicapped horses, but has still done us proud and that was great. 'There's nothing at Royal Ascot for him, but we'll go back to York in three weeks' time and he loves Goodwood, so I imagine we'll go there as well later in the summer.' Hart added: 'He's deserved that, it's great he's got his day. I rode him in the three-year-old Dash here a couple of years ago and I got stuck behind a wall of horses and I was never able to get into a rhythm that day. 'He never handled the track that day, but today I was out on a wing and able to keep momentum rolling forward and I think that has helped. These races are good fun when you win.'
Glasgow Times
07-06-2025
- Sport
- Glasgow Times
Jm Jungle gains ‘deserved' sprint prize for John and Sean Quinn
Ultra-consistent, he picked up a nice prize at York last summer and had been back in action on the Knavesmire just seven days prior to this when a beaten favourite into third. This time he was always travelling strongly for Jason Hart and while Hollie Doyle had the favoured rail on Spartan Arrow, Jm Jungle (7-1) came down the middle of the track to win by half a length. Quinn said: 'He's been running really well and you don't always get what you deserve in life but he's probably deserved that. 'This year he has run into a couple of well-handicapped horses, but has still done us proud and that was great. 'There's nothing at Royal Ascot for him, but we'll go back to York in three weeks' time and he loves Goodwood, so I imagine we'll go there as well later in the summer.' Hart added: 'He's deserved that, it's great he's got his day. I rode him in the three-year-old Dash here a couple of years ago and I got stuck behind a wall of horses and I was never able to get into a rhythm that day. 'He never handled the track that day, but today I was out on a wing and able to keep momentum rolling forward and I think that has helped. These races are good fun when you win.'
North Wales Chronicle
07-06-2025
- Sport
- North Wales Chronicle
Jm Jungle gains ‘deserved' sprint prize for John and Sean Quinn
Ultra-consistent, he picked up a nice prize at York last summer and had been back in action on the Knavesmire just seven days prior to this when a beaten favourite into third. This time he was always travelling strongly for Jason Hart and while Hollie Doyle had the favoured rail on Spartan Arrow, Jm Jungle (7-1) came down the middle of the track to win by half a length. Quinn said: 'He's been running really well and you don't always get what you deserve in life but he's probably deserved that. 'This year he has run into a couple of well-handicapped horses, but has still done us proud and that was great. 'There's nothing at Royal Ascot for him, but we'll go back to York in three weeks' time and he loves Goodwood, so I imagine we'll go there as well later in the summer.' Hart added: 'He's deserved that, it's great he's got his day. I rode him in the three-year-old Dash here a couple of years ago and I got stuck behind a wall of horses and I was never able to get into a rhythm that day. 'He never handled the track that day, but today I was out on a wing and able to keep momentum rolling forward and I think that has helped. These races are good fun when you win.'
