Hollie Doyle breaks own record for winners ridden by a woman in a year

Image source, Getty Images

Image caption, Doyle this year became the first woman to ride five winners at one meeting

Jockey Hollie Doyle has broken her own British record for winners ridden in a year by a woman.

The 24-year-old secured her 117th victory of 2020 on filly State Occasion at Kempton.

Doyle won by a short head on the 2-1 favourite, trained by Ralph Beckett, in a photo finish from runner-up Tornadic.

"When I broke the record last year, in the back of my mind I was always thinking about breaking it again," she told Great British Racing.

"I didn't want it to be a one-off, so I'm delighted to have achieved that goal."

With racing suspended for 10 weeks earlier this year because of the Covid-19 pandemic, Doyle has achieved the feat in a quicker time and with fewer rides - 776 compared with 819 last year.

She is fourth in the Flat jockeys' championship standings, one place behind her boyfriend Tom Marquand.

In August Doyle became the first woman to ride five winners on the same British card with an 899-1 quintuple at Windsor.

Two months earlier, she claimed her first Royal Ascot victory on 33-1 shot Scarlet Dragon.

In December 2019, Doyle broke the landmark of 106 winners set by Josephine Gordon and is only the third British woman to reach a century in a year after Hayley Turner and Gordon.