Hollie Doyle: Jockey breaks record for female wins - 107th victory at Southwell
- Published
Doyle had finished runner-up four times in her last 15 races before breaking the record
Hollie Doyle says she is aiming even higher after breaking the record for British victories by a female jockey.
The 23-year-old triumphed aboard Class Clown on Thursday for her 107th winner of 2019 at Southwell.
Now Doyle is aiming for a first triumph in a top Group level race next year.
"I'm never satisfied and look for the next thing to do," she told BBC Sport.
"I want to ride a Group winner, although that's not easy to do."
Doyle broke the landmark set by Josephine Gordon and is only the third British woman to reach a century in a year after Hayley Turner and Gordon.
She competes against men on a daily basis, and needing one more victory for the record, was beaten in a race on Wednesday by her jockey boyfriend Tom Marquand.
Doyle raised a few laughs when she said "he's not coming home tonight" after Marquand pushed her into second place, but he said the comment was not a dig at him.
"She said I wasn't coming home tonight, which was true, because I was flying to Qatar," Marquand told BBC Sport.
He watched her landmark ride from the weighing room at a race meeting in Qatar after riding a winner himself.
"It's a huge deal getting that last winner," said Marquand, who was fourth this year in the jockeys' title race, which runs from April to October.
When it comes to annual winners, Doyle is 10th in the table for victories., external
Doyle, right, finished 13th in the jockeys' championship this season
Doyle is continuing a generally upward curve for female jockeys, although many do not progress to her level.
While around half of the applicants to the British Racing School are female, just nine of the 112 professional flat jockeys in the country last year were women.
Doyle had equalled Gordon's record, set two years ago, on Saturday but had several near misses before reaching the landmark.
She was runner-up four times in 15 races before her thrilling triumph on Class Clown, trained by David Barron.
The 4-1 favourite had been slightly reluctant to enter the stalls for the six-furlong nursery race, but Doyle stayed calm and produced a perfectly judged ride to take victory on the line.
"I feel a bit emotional. I just feel very grateful and very lucky," said Doyle, who grew up near Hereford and is based in Lambourn, Berkshire.
"The fact that it was only two years ago that Josie set the last record is really positive and goes to show women are being given more rides every year.
"I've been incredibly lucky this year to avoid injury and to work for amazing trainers and owners, so I'd like that to continue and to have even more winners in 2020."
Trainer Barron said he was "delighted" for the rider.
"She gave him a very good ride as he wouldn't be the most straightforward of horses, but she got him going," he said.
"She is very strong in a finish."
Analysis
BBC racing correspondent Cornelius Lysaght
Racing has its problems in areas like welfare and funding, but Doyle is an another example of how, on some issues, the sport is not having too bad a time.
Though there is always work to be done, Doyle is another female jockey who has dismissed the old-fashioned "man's world" stereotype, in the process accumulating a yearly total far bigger than some better-known male colleagues.
And this all comes a day after Sulekha Varma was announced as the first female official to take control of the Grand National, one of three recent high level appointments in the administration of racing to go to women.