Girls Rule The World!

Our own fairer sex history-maker Rachel Venniker was bang on target with a double at Turffontein on Betway Summer Cup day, and on Wednesday we look East to two women whose passion for riding and racing was nurtured in the English countryside and are determined to create history in the LONGINES International Jockeys’ Championship at Happy Valley.

Hollie Doyle, 28, who rode her 1000th career winner at Goodwood, West Sussex, in September, 2024, and Rachel King, 34, Oxford-born but now a ‘true blue’ Aussie after 11 years riding in Sydney, will bid to register a first female win in the series.

“It’s an honour to be selected,” says Doyle, “The HKJC (Hong Kong Jockey Club) pick jockeys from the best around the world that they know will be competitive and serious in their attempt to win the trophy. It creates quite an intense atmosphere.

“We all get on great. We know each other from travelling the world, but everyone is there for only one thing, and that is to win. It is the atmosphere it should be when you are riding at that level, competing for that amount of money. It’s intense, and that’s how I like it really,” she adds.

In 2020, Doyle became the first female to win a leg of the LONGINES IJC and went on to take equal third overall, while the following year she went one better to finish joint second. This is the fifth consecutive year she has been selected.

“I keep praying I will be asked back. It’s such a great competition. I hope I can get my name on that trophy one day.  It would mean so much,” she said.

Doyle’s father was a jumps jockey and her mother regularly rode in Arab horse races.

Around horses from a very early age, she was a member of a Herefordshire pony club before riding in her first pony race at the age of nine — pony racing is a popular training ground for future jockeys — and after leaving school she took a job at a stable in Wales before a stint riding trackwork at Santa Anita, California, at the age of 16.

Rachel King has many parallels with Doyle. King was also brought up with horses; her father raced point-to-pointers — a purely amateur form of jump racing that is often a shop window for future National Hunt stars — and she hunted with the Old Berks, one of the oldest hunts in Britain.

Initially, she rode over jumps as an amateur with limited success for dual-purpose trainer Alan King (no relation) and dabbled in Flat racing, riding one winner when apprenticed to Mark Usher. She then reverted to the amateur ranks and joined Clive Cox as a racing secretary with occasional rides in amateur Flat races.

But the turning point in her career came when she ventured to Sydney, working first for the Bart and James Cummings partnership before joining Gai Waterhouse as a stablehand for 12 months, a placement that progressed to the re-booting of her riding career, which was so successful she won the Sydney champion apprentices title in 2016/17.

“My big break as a jockey came winning the Spring Champion Stakes on Maid Of Heaven for Mark Newnham (Randwick, October, 2018). It was my first Group 1, a real milestone,” King said. She has gone on to win another four Group 1s, including the prized Gr1 Coolmore Stud Stakes (1200m), a stallion-making race, at Flemington last year.

The parallels don’t end there. In early November this year, both women rode at the Breeders’ Cup in Del Mar before both flying on to ride in the Gr1 Melbourne Cup (3200m) at Flemington only days later. Success eluded them in both places. In the Melbourne Cup, Doyle came in 14th aboard Sea King, while King finished 21st on The Map.

The day after the Cup, Doyle flew out to join husband Tom Marquand in Japan, where their riding contracts have been extended to 13 January. King flew back to her base in Sydney but she, too, has another stint lined up in Japan, which will start in the New Year.

It seems the two women are also members of a mutual admiration society. Doyle says of King: “I remember years ago riding against Rachel in an Arab race in England when I was a young kid. It is amazing what she has achieved in Australia. We see each other occasionally on the international circuit and we get along well.”

King says of Doyle: “Hollie is great, a lovely girl. I admire everything she’s done. I couldn’t do what she’s done in England. I tried but I couldn’t break through. She’s done an incredible job for all female jockeys over there. She paved the way for them.”

Now it is all up to what horses the two women are allocated in the LONGINES IJC.  It is literally the luck of the draw, though these days a computerised formula is used to evenly spread the more attractive mounts.  Either would be a worthy winner of the LONGINES IJC while adding another historic chapter to a great tournament.

The final word goes to Rachel King: “I don’t know what it is about the sport but wherever I’ve gone in the world, I’ve got along with the other girls. The girls are very close.  Even with the travelling, I enjoy these meetings. They bring a different aspect.  It makes you just that little bit more competitive. You are representing your country, which means there’s more pressure. But it’s pressure that I enjoy.”

The LONGINES IJC is the most prestigious jockey challenge in the world and the most lucrative for the winning rider.

The four races are worth a combined HK$7.5 million in prize money. Meanwhile, a total prize fund of HK$1 million in bonus money for the most successful riders will be split three ways, with the winner set to receive HK$600,000 with HK$250,000 for second and HK$150,000 for third, respectively.

2023 LONGINES IJC winner Vincent Ho and Hong Kong Champion Jockey Zac Purton will pit their wits and skills against their home-based rivals and eight overseas challengers – including the ladies!