Hollie Doyle breaks new ground with Group-race victory on Dame Malliot

Frankie Dettori’s loss was Hollie Doyle’s gain on Thursday, when the Italian went to York to ride four losers and missed the winning mount aboard Dame Malliot in the Princess Of Wales, the big race on day one of Newmarket’s July meeting. Doyle stepped into the breach and, thanks to some improvised tactics, landed the biggest success of her career to date.

Dettori may have imagined he wasn’t missing much, as Dame Malliot was having her first run of the year and taking on bigger names like Enbihaar, Alounak and last year’s winner, Communique. The filly was allowed to start at 8-1 but put her big stride to devastating effect and came home clear, just as she had done in a Listed race here last summer on the only previous occasion that Doyle rode her.

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“It’s an amazing feeling to get that Group winner under my belt, I’ve been waiting for a while,” Doyle said. The 23-year-old earned her fee with a brave mid-race decision to let her mount stride to the front after Dame Malliot had failed to relax under restraint.

“She’s got a massive stride, she’s strengthened up even more than last year,” the jockey reported. “It wasn’t benefiting her, me pulling her round, and she just wouldn’t settle. So I had a big decision to make, to let her go on, and once she got there she relaxed really well. I kept her away from the others to enable myself to dictate on my own terms.

“They got racing quite soon, apart from me, but because I wasn’t near them, I managed to hold onto her for a bit longer.”

Communique and Desert Encounter made stern challenges in the final quarter-mile but Dame Malliot was pulling clear by the line. Enbihaar’s chance was compromised by steady rain but she kept on into fourth.

Doyle reckons Dame Malliot is good enough to pick up a Group One prize somewhere. “She’s twice the filly she was last year,” the jockey said, adding with a rueful smile: “I know she’s Frankie’s ride but whenever he can’t ride her, I hope I can.”

There must be every hope of that, as the winning trainer, Ed Vaughan, praised Doyle, saying: “I like how she rides, she’s very tidy, she’s got good hands, rides with a good length of rein.” Doyle is currently fifth in the race to be champion jockey, one winner behind William Buick, who rode a treble here.

Meanwhile at York, there was a turn-up in the Dante Stakes, with the odds-on favourite Highest Ground being outstayed by Thunderous. That completed a big-race double at the venue for the trainer Mark Johnston, who also landed the Musidora with Rose Of Kildare.

Charlie Johnston, representing his father, suggested Thunderous might have trouble staying the St Leger distance and that the Grand Prix de Paris could be a more appealing target. “It’s a nice problem to have, and we’ll enjoy making plans.

“Everything is very different, prize money is not what it would be, but everyone is trying to make the most of this difficult situation. These races still matter a huge amount and to win them both today still means a huge amount to the team.”

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