Record-breaking rider Hollie Doyle lit up Leicester with a 135-1 four-timer on Saturday, April 24.
Doyle – who partnered five winners on one afternoon at Windsor last season and had five at Kempton in March – has put down an early marker to suggest she will be right in the mix when it comes to being champion jockey this season.
She finished fourth in the title race last year – in what proved a breakthrough season for her – and she has already stated she will be gunning for the championship full bore this time around.
Her first winner was relatively straightforward as Ed Dunlop’s Bellarena Lady (11-10 favourite) had little trouble in taking the Join RacingTV Now Novice Stakes following a promising debut at Newmarket.
The quirky Dancinginthewoods (3-1) was next for Doyle in the Kube Events Centre At Leicester Racecourse Handicap, being suited by dropping back in distance.
“Coming back in trip is the making of him, he’s been tried over seven furlongs and he could be quite keen – viciously keen, actually. But he’s settled well today and wasn’t doing a tap when he hit the front, so hopefully that will do his confidence the world of good,” Doyle told Racing TV.
Jeanette May (4-1) then did the business for Doyle and her old ally William Stone in the second division of the Follow Us On Twitter @leicesterraces Handicap.
“She’s so frustrating and I feel sorry for Will. She’d been so close to winning at Kempton and then you think today’s the day, but then she’ll go and run a dud,” said Doyle.
“At halfway today she was trying to pull herself up, but the further we went the better – she’s quite cute. She’s well capable, but it depends what mood she’s in.”
Doyle was seen to best effect on Roger Varian’s Jaramillo (9-4) in the Racecourse Live Streams On RacingTV Extra Novice Stakes.
He had been beaten in two hot maidens last season, and Doyle said: “He made me work. We went a nice gallop and I was going as quick as I could, but turning in once we hit the rising ground between the four and the three, the further we went the better I was going and I always felt like the winner.
“When I let him down, he was very green still and it was more of an education today.
“He’s just a big, burly baby really. He’d only had two runs and this was his first time on turf today. I just feel with those types it’s best to try to correct them with your body strength rather than your stick straight away, though obviously you might need your stick in some cases. He was just looking for company, that’s all.
“I think stamina is his strong suit. I was a bit concerned about the ground today, but he’s by Oasis Dream so technically he should be going on it. I think he’ll be better on slower ground and he’ll get a mile and a half.
“It’s going great, I can’t complain.”
