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

I’ll start this week’s column on a high point, if I may, before bemoaning lady luck, or more her absence, and nominating a couple of horses who ought to be winning again soon. Standard fare, I’m afraid, but I'll finish on Hollie Doyle who was this week shortlisted for the BBC Sports Personality of the Year.

More on that later, but it was nice to kick off last week’s opening AW Weekly (I didn’t come up with the title, just for the record) with a winner when Arthur’s Angel delivered at Chelmsford on Friday. Despite getting shuffled back early on, John Ryan’s juvenile picked up strongly in the closing stages and probably wants marking up for that success.

As such, I was very keen on his chances when he was turned out under a penalty at Lingfield on Wednesday and certainly won’t be giving up on him despite him trailing home seventh of nine.

That finishing position in no way tells the whole story as he was pitched out wide throughout before being almost carried off the track turning for home as the horse on his inside hung violently right, taking half of the field with him.

To his credit, Arthur’s Angel did pick up again in the closing stages and I’ll be surprised if his current mark of 65 proves beyond him in the coming weeks.

That might also be the case for Leopardo who was a costly, and unlucky, loser at Wolverhampton on Saturday night having found himself too far back before finishing strongly into second under Franny Norton.

I’m not sure Norton could have done a great deal more, on reflection. His horse stayed every yard of the 1m2f trip when a narrow third at Chelmsford on his previous start, having won over a mile at Newcastle on debut, and I just think the tight turns of Wolverhampton caught him out.

As a result, Leopardo was left with far too much to do and returning to 1m2f, or Newcastle’s straight mile, should see him regain the winning thread should trainer Mark Johnston opt to keep him on the go this winter.

No Drama as quality action continues

The pick of the action in the last week came on Wednesday when Johnny Drama landed the Listed Unibet Wild Flower Stakes at Kempton.

The five year-old has been a revelation since joining Andrew Balding, winning on each of his last four starts and also showing the benefit of keeping some of these older horses on the go as they fully develop.

Silvestre De Sousa told Racing Racing TV afterwards: “I got myself on the inside, a mile out, and I felt the pace was just steadying up.

“But when I came to the junction, he was rolling – and I couldn’t see any dangers coming, until the last 50 yards I saw the other horse near me.

“But he fought, and really wanted to win tonight.

“I’ve found he’s really got better since he’s had his tongue tie. He still struggles a bit with his breathing – you have to fill him up every furlong – but when you ask him a question, he really wants to do it for you.”

He could progress further still, as should Kingman filly Mystical Air who broke her duck in grand style at Lingfield just a few hours earlier. I suspect trainer Roger Varian will be eyeing black type with her, similarly Hugo Palmer who sent out Ocean Star to win the following race at Lingfield in equally impressive fashion.

It might be December, but Flat racing is still providing plenty of interest and its fair share of quality.

On Saturday, Wolverhampton stages a Fast-Track Qualifier featuring Mighty Gurkha and Zamaani, though I wonder if both might just be vulnerable to Atalis Bay who looked a colt going places until flopping on bad ground at Newmarket most recently.

Doyle gains more recognition as dream year continues

At the end of a year which she has in a sense made her own, it seems only fair that I give the final word to Hollie Doyle who was named Sportswoman of the Year by The Sunday Times only a few days ago.

Soon after, Doyle was again putting horse racing in lights when she was named as one of six shortlisted for the 2020 BBC Sports Personality of the Year award.

Doyle is in elite company, with Formula One record breaker Lewis Hamilton and snooker record breaker Ronnie O’Sullivan in the mix along with famed nose breaker Tyson Fury, but she deserves her place in the line-up on the back of a year in which she has reshaped the perception of female jockeys in our sport.

Having ridden her first Group race winner in July, Doyle became the first female jockey to ride five winners on the same card at Windsor later in the summer before breaking her Group One duck on the biggest stage of all, on Champions Day at Ascot where she enjoyed a big-race double for good measure.

What is most charming about Doyle is that she doesn’t want to acknowledge just how good she is, on the outside at least, but to watch her lift Yes My Boy home at Lingfield on Wednesday tells you that this is a top-class jockey for any day of the week, be it Lingfield in December or Ascot on Champions Day.

That she’s a female jockey doesn’t register anymore, and in a workplace that is sadly still dominated by men, that is perhaps the biggest compliment one can pay her.

Whether she can earn the support of the wider sporting audience later this month remains to be seen, but Doyle is a thoroughly likeable character whose humble approach is sure to win her plenty of supporters and will be in stark contrast to so some of her fellow SPOTY contenders.

We wish her well.

• All Weather Weekly: November 27