'Everyone recognises how significant we are to the sport' - Tom Marquand and Hollie Doyle welcome Nunthorpe-day focus on jockeys

Tom Marquand hopes York's decision to build the Ebor festival's third afternoon around the promotion of jockeys will begin to improve engagement with the sport's fans.

Marquand and Hollie Doyle on Thursday hosted a press conference in advance of what has been built by organisers as the most jockey-centric day ever staged on a British racecourse.

As part of the Under Jockeys' Orders initiative – a collaboration between York, the Professional Jockeys Association and Great British Racing – the surname of every jockey will appear on the back of their breeches in a bid to make them more easily identifiable. Racegoers will also be able to watch jockeys leading riding demonstrations and displaying the fitness levels required of riders in a special pop-up gym, while Ryan Moore is among those to have been recorded taking part in a question-and-answer session with children at York's Clifton Green Primary School.

Doyle and her husband, Marquand, have amassed considerable experience riding in Japan, where the sport's top participants have celebrity status.

Marquand said: "When you ride a winner in Japan, people clamour over a rail with things they want you to sign. They do a lot of things to encourage engagement in Japan. They take it to another level altogether.

"Hopefully tomorrow will help us to do that by giving little snippets of information about what is going on behind the scenes, and that it isn't just 20 racehorses charging up a grass field. We hope by opening things up a little bit more, it will bring about more engagement. 

"The days you least want to do this sort of stuff are days like this, which is a challenge, but I think everyone in the weighing room recognises the significance of what we are to the sport as a group."

Tom Marquand started Thursday with a win at York on CelandineCredit: Edward Whitaker

PJA chair Nick Attenborough suggested Under Jockeys' Orders is "all about connecting fans to jockeys, on TV, social media and with racegoers". Marquand hopes a key part of that will be educating fans about the lives jockeys really lead.

"People look at a week like this and say we get to stay up here and it must be brilliant," said Marquand, before painting a slightly different picture. 

"We wanted to go for a bit of dinner last night but I had to find an Airbnb with a hot tub or bath, so I could lose weight," he explained. "I spent two hours this morning going for a run and sitting in a hot tub. For every positive there is always a knock-on effect. The glam lifestyle isn't there. As soon as things start to feel like they're getting glamorous, you pay for it."

Marquand and Doyle will both be aboard leading fancies in Friday's Coolmore Nunthorpe Stakes, with Marquand set to partner his Breeders' Cup-winning sprinter Big Evs and Doyle maintaining her association with last year's Royal Ascot winner Bradsell.

"I'm really looking forward to riding him – so long as he doesn't go and beat me," said Doyle, pointing to Marquand, who stressed that in the heat of competition, neither would offer the other any sort of assistance.

"We are both out there being competitive," said Marquand. "Other guys will try to take the piss a bit and shout for an inch when it probably shouldn't be given. We make sure that doesn't happen with each other."

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Jockeys to wear special breeches with names on their backsides in new riders' initiative on Nunthorpe Stakes day 

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