Hollie Doyle becomes first Flat jockey to reach 100 winners in 2022 in Britain

Monday: Wolverhampton

Hollie Doyle became the first Flat jockey to reach 100 winners in Britain in 2022 when steering Society Lion to success in the 6f handicap at Wolverhampton on Monday evening.

The Ed Dunlop-trained five-year-old had not won since August 2020 but the front-running tactics adopted by the Doyle paid off and helped the rider reach a century of domestic winners for the fourth successive year.

In 2019, Doyle joined Hayley Turner and Josephine Gordon as the only female jockeys to ride 100 winners in a year, ending up on 116. Doyle has improved on that total in every season since including last year’s career-best haul of 172.

Dunlop is one of 45 different trainers or training partnerships for whom Doyle has ridden winners this year. The rider reached her ton three days quicker than in 2021.

Speaking to Sky Sports Racing, Doyle said: “It wasn’t an ideal draw but Ed [Dunlop] said he’d give me free rein but I watched all his runs back and he hadn’t really shown much from being dropped in so I thought I’d do the opposite today.

“It’s good to have got that done. When you do it once you want to do it every year so it’s great. It’s been a good few weeks so hopefully it can continue.”

Trueshan's brilliant Northumberland Plate performance: one of Hollie Doyle's 100 winnersCredit: John Grossick (racingpost.com/photos)

Doyle’s 100 winners include her third Royal Ascot winner in the form of the Archie Watson-trained Bradsell in the Coventry Stakes as well as Trueshan’s unforgettable weight-carrying performance in the Northumberland Plate last month.

Doyle also became the first female rider to win a European Group 1 Classic when winning the Prix de Diane on Nashwa in the same month to add to her domestic exploits. Other international successes have come in Qatar with Outbox in February and more recently in Germany aboard Well Disposed in the Group 3 Mehl Mulhens-Trophy at the start of the month.

She said: “It’s always nice to try and better the year before, but I understand at some point it’s going to be hard to beat that but I’ll give it a go. I’ve had some real prestigious winners this year and been getting plenty of opportunities so that’s what you really want.”

Doyle sits in joint-second in the Flat jockeys' championship on 44 winners along with husband Tom Marquand, whom she married in March, with William Buick leading the way on 69 winners.

Buick, who is on 91 winners for 2022, leads the championship, which runs from Newmarket's Guineas Festival on April 30 to British Champions Day at Ascot on October 15.

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