Hollie Doyle: ‘As soon as I was back on a horse, everything felt so natural’

Hollie Doyle says it felt as though she had never been away after she returned from five months out injured with a winner at Southwell on Saturday.

Doyle broke her leg badly in a fall at Bath on May 22, and won on her first ride back on Oxford Circus for James Owen, before fog forced the meeting to be abandoned. “It was great to be back racing, honestly. It felt like I hadn’t been anywhere, which is a really good sign,” she told Charlotte Greenway on Monday’s show. “It was great to come back with a winner, and I was really grateful for the amount of support I received on my first day back.”

‘A huge level of uncertainty’

Doyle admitted she did not realise how serious the injury was until she came out of hospital. “It was just such a huge level of uncertainty up until the last two months, which is quite hard to deal with,” she said. “I just had it in my brain that whatever happens, if I do what I can from day one, at least at the end of it, if it’s a good result, great. And if not, at least I know I’d have given it my all.”

Asked whether there had been a chance she would never ride again, she said: “In my brain, it was never going to happen. I was never accepting that. But yes, there was a level of uncertainty about whether I’d actually be able to do it again.” A third operation in August proved the turning point. “Things really improved from there. I had an amazing surgeon, and the Injured Jockeys Fund were really good in accommodating me every day I was in there. I’ve had a lot of help along the way.”

“There was no nervousness or anything like that. I just felt like I hadn’t been anywhere.”

Hollie Doyle

She kept up with racing while she was out, but said her recovery came first. “It was painful watching Royal Ascot and things like that,” she said. “But to be honest, I was so focused on getting myself better that nothing else really mattered.”

She was a little apprehensive before Saturday, but that soon passed. “As soon as I was back on a horse, everything felt so natural. There was no nervousness or anything like that,” she said. “It’s great my first ride was a winner, and I could grab hold of it a bit and feel normal. That’s a great feeling.”

Hong Kong next

Doyle is riding at Wolverhampton on Monday night and plans to keep riding through the winter before heading to Hong Kong on November 29 for a two-month stint. She praised the Hong Kong Jockey Club for honouring her contract. “Time changes, things change. It’s a results-based sport, and I haven’t had any results this year,” she said. “So it was great of them to stick with me.”

She rode there on a short-term licence last winter and is keen to build on it. “I really loved it last winter and had a few winners, so it was always the goal to go back,” she said. “Before I got injured, I was on over 50 winners in May, so God knows what would have happened if the injury hadn’t occurred. It definitely sharpens you up and puts you in good stead.”