It’s 25 minutes until post time on a picturesque October afternoon at Keeneland Racecourse. Out of the jockey’s room steps a young woman dressed for work: tall black riding boots, white jockey pants and protective riding vest. Her red hair is hard to miss in the sunlight.

“Are you Rosie?” A patron asks without reservation.

“No, I’m Sophie,” she politely replies in her British timbre.

Sophie Doyle, to be precise, and although the 29-year-old jockey is not quite a household name around American racetracks, it’s only a matter of time.

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Doyle began her racing career in her native Great Britain. She packed up and moved to the States three years ago in search of increased opportunity…and opportunity has indeed knocked. Saturday, Doyle is set to ride a rising 5-year-old mare named Fioretti in the $1,000,000 Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint, right here at Keeneland, her adopted home.

20 minutes to post. The stakes are much lower on this afternoon—a $21,000 maiden claiming race. Soon, Doyle will go to work aboard a 1,200 lb. 3-year-old locomotive and guide him around the 1-1/16 mile oval at a rate of speed that would draw the attention of law enforcement in most neighborhoods.

Doyle is calm and composed. Even when she talks about her pair of spills this summer, which sent her slamming into the ground at nearly 40 mph while narrowly avoiding an onslaught of thundering hooves, she does so with the unruffled pragmatism of a surgeon detailing a routine procedure to an edgy patient. After all, it’s just another day at the office for a jockey.

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Doyle was born and raised in Great Britain with thoroughbred in her veins. Her mother, Jaqueline, was a highly regarded racehorse trainer, and younger brother James is currently one of the top riders in Europe and Dubai as the go-to pilot for the venerable Godolphin Stable. Though not even 30, her experience in the saddle runs deep.

“The first time I sat on a horse, I was 16 months old,” she says matter-of-factly.

“We had ponies before we could really walk. My mom was good at finding the right Section A Welsh Ponies, and she got me into in-hand showing when I was five.”

Everyone has to start somewhere of course, but not everyone possesses the physical and mental makeup to become a professional jockey. Of all equestrian endeavors, it’s unquestionably one of the most hazardous, but as Doyle points out, it can also be one of the most rewarding.

“My mom wanted me to be a showjumper at one time,” she recalls. “I really enjoyed showjumping and eventing, but in those sports you need so much sponsorship and backing. My mom had lots of racehorses, so I had the backing there. And really, nothing can compare to the feeling of sitting on a racehorse.”

So off she went, full speed ahead into the howling tornado of a life riding racehorses.

Her decision was immediately validated. In 2010, Doyle was the leading female apprentice in the UK. Her stock rose quickly, and yet, she found herself struggling for quality rides.

“Every time I would get a horse who would just start to show improvement, and I would think ‘the next time we can go and win’, one of the big name jocks would be brought in,” she said.

So Doyle made another headfirst leap…this time, across the pond, to the United States.

“There’s more opportunity for females here because there’s so much more racing. In England, you only have a couple of meets at one time, with maybe 7 or 8 races on the card, and that’s it. Over here, there’s somewhere to ride everyday.”

After a few months in California Doyle moved her tack to Kentucky, where she’s currently establishing herself as one of the circuit’s most promising young pilots. Much of her success can be attributed to her willingness to grind. If it means spending the pre-dawn hours breezing, then riding the afternoon card in Kentucky, then driving up to Indiana or Ohio to ride a night capper or two, that’s what she’ll do.

“I’m a horseman first, a rider second.”

Doyle concedes she lacks the brute strength and racing experience of many of her peers, but she compensates with hardwired horse sense. The type of knowledge and feel that cannot be learned in jockey school, nor honed by sheer bravado and bravery. The keen horsemanship that only comes from practically being born on a horse and developed through hands-on participation across the equestrian spectrum.

“I’m a horseman first, a rider second,” Doyle explains. “Horsemanship is something my mom always pushed into me growing up, and something people have always noticed in me. It’s always good to feel out a horse first—understanding how he’d like to go, his temperament, how he moves—and it’s done me well to be brought up with that base. Having those horsemanship skills is a huge advantage next to someone who just jumps into racing and thinks ‘I’m going to be a jockey’, and they haven’t really worked behind the scenes with horses.”

(Photo: Keeneland)

(Photo: Keeneland)

“She has a great head on her shoulders,” said Zito. “I don’t see any reason why she can’t be a top jockey over here.”

An increasing number of horsemen are taking notice. In 2014, her first year as a full-time jockey in the U.S., Doyle tallied 125 starts and earned just under $100,000 in purse money (jockeys typically take home a 10% share of the purse). Thus far in 2015, Doyle’s workload has exploded to the tune of 618 races, with roughly $1.3 million in purses.

“She has a great head on her shoulders,” said Hall of Fame trainer Nick Zito, who has employed Doyle for a number of his horses at the Keeneland meet. “I don’t see any reason why she can’t be a top jockey over here.”

There’s no question Doyle’s leap of faith has paid off, as her career trajectory continues to climb. However, until this summer, she had yet to break through at the stakes level. That would change when she teamed up with a fellow fledgling young horseman, Anthony Hamilton Jr.

 

Two Hearts

Joe Hamilton had an eye for good horses and liked what he saw in a 4-year-old filly at the Fasig-Tipton sale in July of 2014. A daughter of Bernardini out of a Cherokee Run mare, Fioretti was a $230,000 yearling who in 10 career starts, had only a maiden win to show for it. Everyone who had ridden her agreed she was a handful. There was talent in there, sure, but try and control her and she would fight like hell. Perhaps she just needed time to mature. At the least, she had potential to pass on her winning pedigree. Hamilton, along with business partners Tony Braddock and Don Janes, brought the filly to Braddock’s Two Hearts Farm in Paris, KY for $35,000.

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Anthony Hamilton Jr. had only recently taken the reigns from his father as the farm’s resident racehorse trainer. Primarily a broodmare station, Two Hearts Farm rarely sent horses to the races, but Hamilton Jr., just a few months north of 30, quickly proved he was up to the task.

“We gave her the rest of the summer off while we figured out what to do next,” recalls Hamilton Jr. “We decided to keep her in training, and she’s really blossomed.”

Indeed she has. On December 18, 2014, Fioretti scored her second career win, the first with her new squad, in a $25,000 Allowance race just up the road at Turfway Park. A relatively modest prize, but for a young trainer with only a few horses in the barn, a win is most definitely a win. It was an early Christmas present for the Two Hearts family, and a day Anthony will never forget.

Two weeks later, Joe Hamilton suffered a fatal heart attack. He was 58. Anthony found the strength to keep showing up at the barn each morning. He was determined to make his dad proud doing the only thing the family had ever done—horses. Fioretti, meanwhile, continued to evolve into a force. Two weeks after Joe’s death, the mare was back at Turfway for another Allowance try, and back in the winner’s circle.

This past June, Hamilton entered Fioretti in the $70,000 Roxelana Stakes at Churchill Downs. Sophie Doyle, who rode the mare for the first time in her previous race, once again got the call. It was a step up in class for everyone, and the bettors weren’t buying. Going off as the longest shot in the field, Doyle quickly settled the mare into an optimal stalking position on the outside. She seized the lead by the 1/2 mile pole, kicked into high gear at the top of the stretch and never looked back.

Fioretti, Hamilton and Doyle were now stakes winners.

(Photo: Churchill Downs)

(Photo: Churchill Downs)

 

“She used to be really, really strong and try to run off in some of her races,” Doyle points out. “As soon as you touch her or take too much of a hold she’d just throw her head up and be gone. As soon as I got on her, I just felt her out. Does she want a tight hold, long hold, short hold? Do I need to be quiet with hands, or pick my hands up, keep them down on the withers? After being on her for about five minutes I was able to figure out how she liked to go.”

Anthony and Fioretti. ©Danielle Golden/Coady Photography

Anthony and Fioretti. ©Danielle Golden/Coady Photography

 

“You go to her stall after a race, and she just keeps getting bigger,” Hamilton explained. “Just physically bigger. She’s really happy and just keeps getting better.”

How far can she go? Hamilton began to hatch a plan, and it started three hours due west at Ellis Park for the $100,000 Grade II Groupie Doll Stakes. If the last race was a step up in class, this was a catapult.

The mare broke alertly from the gate. Relaxed under Doyle’s hand, she set a comfortable pace and again, rounded the turn for home in front. Ultimately, the she couldn’t hold off a furious late running rally and settled for second. Another question answered: Fioretti belonged at this level.

And so it was on to the next phase of Hamilton’s plan, just a few miles down the road from Two Hearts Farm at Keeneland for the $250,000 Grade II TCA Stakes. If the last race was a catapult in class, this one was shot from a cannon. One of the premiere racing meets in the country, Fioretti would match strides with elite company. Grade I winners. Big name jockeys. Big box trainers with clean fingernails.

There was much more at stake than the hefty purse. The winner of this race was guaranteed a spot in the $1,000,000 Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint over this very Keeneland dirt. Win, and you’re in. The final piece to the master plan.

Another race, another milestone. Graded stakes winners. Breeders’ Cup.

I breezed her this morning,” Sophie tells me as post time draws closer. “She’s impressed me even more. Her mind is in the right place. She just really relaxed, and was so smooth and nicely in hand. She’s really progressed from race to race and she knows she’s good right now.”

(Keeneland/Coady Photography)

(Keeneland/Coady Photography)

 

“Sophie does a great job with her,” said Hamilton. “She doesn’t grab a hold of her, she gets her relaxed really well. We’re ready. This was the plan.”

Fioretti will be a longshot Saturday in what will be by far her greatest challenge yet. If the last race was a cannon-fired jump in class, this one is rocket launched.

Imagine that—a longshot.

Of all the racehorses, of all jockeys and all the trainers from all the farms on this planet, this team of longshots has come together to take on the world’s best on the sport’s grandest stage. What a plan it is.

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