Britain’s Hollie Doyle finished an honourable joint-second behind runaway winner Mickael Barzalona in the Longines International Jockeys’ Championship at Happy Valley in Hong Kong.
Victory in the third leg on board Soleil Fighter earned Doyle 12 points and, despite failing to score in any of the other three races, that was enough to see her finish best of the rest alongside New Zealand’s James McDonald.
However, French rider Barzalona was streets ahead on 30 points following wins on Sergeant Pepper and Aurora Lady in the first and fourth legs, plus a second place in race two behind McDonald’s mount Prince Alex.
Ireland’s Colin Keane was fourth with 10 points thanks to a couple of placed efforts, while William Buick finished sixth in the table.
Doyle became the first female jockey to win a leg of the prestigious challenge event in 2020, when finishing tied for third overall, and was the IJC runner-up 12 months later.
The 28-year-old was clearly a favourite among the fans at Happy Valley and her supporters were celebrating when she scored by a neck on the David Haynes-trained Soleil Fighter.
“I think David gave me my first winner in the Longines IJC, so it’s nice to get him another one,” said Doyle. “The horse was very tough; he does need things to fall right, but they did.”
Barzalona became the third French rider to lift the trophy following Christophe Lemaire (2009) and Olivier Peslier (1998 and 2006).
Going to post for the final leg, four other jockeys were in with a chance of at least matching his tally at that point, but he made sure of topping the table with a decisive victory on the Pierre Ng-trained Aurora Lady, despite having to start out wide from stall 12.
“Pierre was quite confident in Aurora Lady’s chances after he disappointed at Sha Tin last time when things didn’t work out,” said Barzalona.
“He’s been unlucky a couple of times recently and given we were drawn wide, he told me to try to get forward, as long as they didn’t go mad early on. I trusted my horse and he didn’t let me down.”
