Doyle’s bold bid for Melbourne Cup 2023 ride

Star performer Hollie Doyle isn’t one to let the grass grow under her feet.

When she eyes a Melbourne Cup ride opportunity, she goes for it and is absolutely proactive in trying to further her claims even if she recognizes it might be difficult to bring her plan to fruition.

“It was just an idea, an ambitious one, but who knows?”

That was how Doyle, talking to Racing.com, explained her approach to ride the Chris Waller trained Soulcombe in the Melbourne Cup, reaching out to both Waller and managing owner Ozzie Kheir about the prospects of her taking the big race ride.

Doyle was on Soulcombe in the lightly raced, son of Frankel’s last outing in Britain at York and she turned that into a winning ride, so she does have a successful history with the horse, who won three out of seven starts in England before relocating to Australia.

“I won on him when he was trained by William Haggas, so I do know the horse,” Doyle told Racenet. “I don’t have high expectations to get the ride, but if you don’t ask, you don’t get I suppose.”

It has been reported that Kheir has confirmed that Doyle will be in the mix for the ride when that discussion takes place between the trainer and ownership group, but no jockey will be booked before the big race weights are announced.

Soulcombe has raced five times in Australia, franking his well-being as recently as last Saturday when he won the Listed Heatherley Handicap at Caulfield under the guidance of Blake Shinn.

Interestingly enough, Soulcombe has had four different jockeys in the saddle in those five Australian starts.

Doyle is married to fellow jockey Tom Marquand who will be riding at the Melbourne Cup carnival.