This girl is on fire

Gary McKenzie on jockey landmarks

We must congratulate Jim Crowley and Andrea Atzeni on reaching milestones this week. Crowley reached two 2,000 winners on Sunday and Atzeni rode his 1,000th British winner on Thursday.

Both remarkable achievements. Crowley actually rode over 250 winners over jumps before becoming a flat jockey. But they played second fiddle this week to another top jockey.

Hollie Doyle had a decent Sunday at Yarmouth. Three winners and two seconds (by a short head and a nose) at my former local track gave her a day to remember. That was not the highlight of her weekend though.

Demand

The day before she had ridden five winners at Windsor including another group win on Extra Elusive. The five winners were for five different trainers which shows how much demand she is in.

Her three winners at Yarmouth were also for different handlers.

She is the first female rider to ride a five timer at one meeting, and that should be mentioned. Hollie is already a role model for young girls just getting started, or thinking about a career in the saddle, and days like this can only raise her profile even higher.

Such a talent

But the main point for me is that it is incredibly hard for any jockey to win a race, let alone multiple races on the same card.
She is such a talent and many better qualified than me are touting her as a future champion jockey.

She is currently fifth in the jockeys table and only three others have ridden in more races this season. She will keep getting rides but I hope that she gets the big race opportunities her ability deserves.

♦ Your link to Doug Campbell’s 50 Horse to Follow for the jumps season 2020-21 http://wp.me/P8e3Dl-11g