Record-breaking Hollie Doyle adds Doha victory to her growing CV

Hollie Doyle broke new ground on Friday when a whistle-stop trip to Qatar resulted in her first winner outside Europe and the most valuable prize of her career to date.

Doyle, who overtook Josephine Gordon's record for a female rider in a year when riding winner number 107 on Class Clown at Wolverhampton earlier this month, took a day out of her busy domestic schedule to partner Maystar, another recent Wolverhampton winner, for Archie Watson at Doha on Friday.

In a field of 14 in which her rivals included several others from Britain, one of them ridden by her partner Tom Marquand, she landed the near £45,000 first prize by three-quarters of a length from the ex-Irish Think Big.

She said: "It was my first time in Doha and it all went great; Maystar won well. It was on the turf, and although it's quite a sharp track, there's plenty of grass and it rides quite nicely.

"It was quick ground, but they'd had quite a lot of rain and so there was no jar. I think it was my most valuable win."

Watson has big plans for Maystar, which will include a return to Doha before Good Friday's All Weather Finals.

He said: "Maystar put in an excellent performance in Doha under a fantastic ride from Hollie Doyle. He's an incredibly tough and consistent, improving horse and it was a much deserved success.

"He’s come out of the race fresh and well and we’ll have our eyes set on returning to Doha for the Al Biddah Mile in February before the All Weather Championships at Easter."

He added: "I'm delighted for Hambleton Racing and all of their owners, who have been such great supporters of ours this year. They are a very well run syndicate and it was a fantastic win for them."

Doyle was away only around 24 hours and flew back into Heathrow on Saturday morning before heading straight to Lingfield, where she took her domestic score for the year to 112 on the Watson-trained hot favourite Rhubarb Bikini in the novice auction.

She is set for a busy day at Wolverhampton on Boxing Day, after which there are another five days of all-weather racing in which she can put her record even further out of the reach of others.

She plans to stay in Britain during the winter and said: "Archie has plenty more to run and a few two-year-olds who haven't run yet, so it's exciting times.

"It's been an amazing year for all of us and I've been very lucky to be in the right place at the right time. The aim is just to keep going."

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