All Weather round-up, eyecatchers and Hollie Doyle's BBC Sports Personality of the Year exploits

Doyle's star quality shines light on racing

I don’t want to spend too long labouring the point, having given Hollie Doyle a special mention for her BBC Sports Personality of the Year nomination in this column a few weeks back, but it was lovely to see her finishing on the podium in third place behind winner Lewis Hamilton on Sunday night.

On the track, 2020 has been a remarkable year for Doyle; from her maiden Royal Ascot success and riding five winners on the same card at Windsor, to her first Group One winner on British Champions Day, and ultimately breaking her own record for the most winners ridden in a calendar year by a female jockey.

I’m sceptical about most things, particularly new things, but when Doyle came along it was plainly obvious that as far as female jockeys go, we were dealing with someone on a different level here, and barring the odd few, we can now say that when comparing her to her male counterparts, too. This is a superstar of the saddle.

Perhaps the most impressive thing off all is that Doyle is still only 24 years of age. Should she continue to improve her riding skills at anywhere near the pace she has over the last few seasons, there really is no telling how far she could go in the sport.

Away from the track in 2020, Doyle was also named The Sunday Times Sportswoman of the Year, as well as being confirmed as Sports Journalists’ Association Sportswoman of the Year and Flat Jockey of the Year at the HWPA Derby Awards.

These are truly remarkable achievements for one so young, but crucially for racing, Doyle’s ability to transcend sports and earn more votes on Sunday night than genuine sporting greats such as Ronnie O’Sullivan and Stuart Broad is more impressive. This awards ceremony usually offers racing nothing but a short review of the year that would be missed were you need a toilet break or leave the room to put the kettle on.

That ability to appeal beyond racing is a rare gift that the sport is currently in short supply of. Doyle wasn’t even a jockey when Sir Anthony McCoy was named Sports Personality of the Year in 2010 on the back of a huge media push that followed him riding the 4,000 winner of a career that had spanned decades. Aside from McCoy, Frankie Dettori is one of the few in the game who can enter the consciousness of those outside it.

After last weekend, Doyle now falls into that category and with Dettori having recently celebrated his 50th birthday and being much closer to end of his career than the start, racing might need to hang its hat on its newest star for some time to come.

That Doyle is an unassuming character who appears almost embarrassed at the attention she is receiving only increases her likeability and it’s hard to see that changing. Racing has a jewel in its crown and here’s hoping 2021 can see Doyle's star shine even brighter.

Bangkok defeat leaves sour taste

Having previewed Lingfield’s Betway Quebec Stakes in last week’s column, I was most surprised to see Bangkok available to back at 5/1 in the morning and his SP of 6/1 clearly underestimated his chance.

As such, I had no issue in getting stuck into him each-way and was feeling rather green when Andrew Balding’s charge went down by a nose having made up a significant amount of ground in the closing stages.

The first thing to say is that plenty of credit must go to Sir Michael Stoute for getting Sangarius back to winning ways following a lengthy spell off the track. He remains a horse with plenty more to offer next year.

Nevertheless, there is no hiding from the fact that the runner-up was an unlucky loser on the day having been given plenty to do and then been checked by the winner late on.

The stewards saw enough interference to call an enquiry, but not enough to reverse the placings, though I suspect Balding and his owners will consider appealing the result given the official winning distance was a nose and that Bangkok was in front a stride after the line.

It probably shouldn’t have come to that, given David Probert had to watch stablemate Johnny Drama make his move on his outside when the field made the approach for home before he could finally give Bangkok the office. The response – immediate and impressive – made the result even harder to take.

I’m not blaming Probert at all – the stewards are far more culpable on this occasion – and the horse evidently needs settling off the pace to produce his best, but whichever way you slice it, Bangkok was the best horse on the day and appears to be back on track. A crack at the Winter Derby surely beckons.

Smart prospects and Varian on song

The weekend saw some nice performances at Lingfield with Al Zaraqaan taking another step up the ladder with victory in the Betway Handicap and Aberama Gold getting a peach of a ride from Shane Gray when landing the six-furlong sprint handicap earlier on the card.

Still, the one horse I'm taking out of the last week is Sword Spirit, who dotted up over a mile on her handicap debut at Lingfield on Monday.

In truth, this 0-65 didn't take much winning but I really liked the attitude this filly displayed when when finishing third on her previous start at Kempton. She's a trier and is evidently going the right way.

The handicapper is sure to have his say now, but he can only do so much, and she might be able to keep one step ahead of the assessor when stepping up in trip to 1m2f.

She's bred to want further than a mile, and to be better than running in low-grade handicaps, and I suspect trainer William Haggas will win plenty more races with this daughter of Charm Spirit.

Talking of Newmarket trainers, Roger Varian continues to enjoy a good time of things and he has sent out a couple of nice winning newcomers in the last week or so while I really liked the run of Newcastle runner-up Mobadra on Monday.

Varian has plenty of entries in the next few days - many of them choicely-bred sorts - and I wouldn't be surprised were he to saddle a couple more winners before the year is out.

• All Weather Weekly: December 17
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• All Weather Weekly: November 27