Breeders' Cup: Hollie Doyle returns to Keeneland with much more firepower

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Much has changed for Hollie Doyle since her first and only Breeders’ Cup mount two years ago at Keeneland, but even then, with Mightly Gurkha coming home a tame 11th in the Juvenile Turf Sprint, the ground had shifted beneath Doyle’s feet.

Doyle, who turned 26 in October, began her professional career in 2014, ended her term of apprenticeship in 2017, and by 2020 had hit the road to success. She was in the midst of a season where she would ride more winners than any female jockey had before in England; she had won for the first time at Royal Ascot; and in July 2020, Doyle landed her first group stakes win.

Three weeks before she came to Keeneland in 2020, on British Champions Day at Ascot, Doyle truly broke out, riding two of the six winners on the card, with Trueshan winning the Long Distance Cup and Glen Shiel the Sprint.

Things have only gotten better. Doyle this season tied with her husband, Tom Marquand, for second in the British Jockey Championship, each riding 91 winners, well behind runaway champion jockey William Buick, who notched 157.

The Mighty Gurkha was a 68-1 shot in the Juvenile Turf Sprint. In her second American mount, in June at Belmont, Outbox was beaten close to 40 lengths in the Belmont Gold Cup. Expectations are set much higher this week.

Friday, Doyle was to ride The Platinum Queen, one of the favorites in the Juvenile Turf Sprint. And in the Filly and Mare Turf, she pilots morning-line favorite Nashwa, her mount all year, for co-trainers John and Thady Gosden. Nashwa this summer gave Doyle her first classic win, capturing the Prix de Diane, the French Oaks. Nashwa was third in the Oaks at Epsom and comes to Keeneland after a second-place finish last month in the Group 1 Prix de l’Opera.

“She’s training very well and has taken the travel very professionally,” said Doyle, a couple hours after guiding Nashwa through exercise over Keeneland’s training track.

Mighty Gurkha didn’t have much chance two years ago in any case, but struggled, losing his action trying to cope with a Keeneland turn very tight by European standards.

“It’s challenging here. It’s sharp with a short run [to the turn], and you never know about the ground,” Doyle said. “But this is every jockey’s dream to get these kinds of rides, and it’s definitely great to have that one run under my belt coming here with such live chances. I know what to expect now and the dynamics of things having ridden in America.”

Post-Breeders’ Cup plans do not call for a quiet winter. Doyle and Marquand are off to Japan on two-month contracts. First England – then the world.