Doyle is plumbing new highs with Ascot triumphs

After a landmark coming of age ride on the gutsy Al Kazeem to snatch the Prince of Wales’s Stakes on the line, the 25-year-old then won the 28-runner Royal Hunt Cup cavalry charge on 33-1 outsider Belgian Bill before Rizeena took the equally competitive Queen Mary Stakes for veteran trainer Clive Brittain.

Yet this jockey, who has to work overtime to keep his weight in check because he stands tall at 5ft 9ins, was keeping his feet firmly on the ground – he was fulfilling bread and butter riding commitments on the all-weather at Kempton last night.

“I’d have taken one but three is unbelievable – it’s a great day. It’s nice when it all comes together,” said Doyle after winning three successive races on a day of dreams.

The highlight was inevitably Al Kazeem. This is a gutsy horse whose career hung in the balance last season following a serious pelvic injury and who had been nursed back to health by his ultra-patient trainer Roger Charlton.

He is likely to swerve Sandown’s Coral–Eclipse Stakes on July 6 – Al Kazeem had to dig deep to peg back Paul Hanagan’s Mukhadram – and be saved for an autumn campaign that will revolve around the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, Europe’s richest race.

This success confirmed the form of last month’s Tattersalls Gold Cup in Ireland when Al Kazeem shocked Aidan O’Brien’s Camelot. Last season’s 2000 Guineas and Epsom Derby winner could only finish fourth in this 10-furlong Group One test for older horses.

It appeared the William Haggas-trained Mukhadram had stolen the race turning into the home straight, but Doyle was the first of the pursuing jockeys to be alive to the threat and started to chase down the long-time leader on his mount whose grand sire, Dubai Millennium, won the corresponding race in 2000.

The Fugue, ridden by Doyle’s great friend and rival William Buick, ran a blinder on her first run of the year to finish third for composer Andrew Lloyd-Webber; she is still a horse of immense promise after her success in York’s Musidora Stakes last year.

Doyle, a promising rider in his younger days, had told the Yorkshire Post in an exclusive interview a year ago that he had enrolled on a plumbing course because he didn’t want to become “a journeyman jockey” struggling for rides.

He only declined the career change because he told himself “to give racing one more go” – a decision that was vindicated when he partnered Cityscape to victory on Dubai World Cup in March last year.

“I thought Paul Hanagan gave his horse a fantastic ride, he got his fractions right. He got a couple of lengths on me turning in and I had to make them up,” said the winning rider.

“He’s a very tough horse and I’m lucky to be sat on him. It’s magical really, to get a Royal Ascot winner. It leaves you speechless, it’s what it is all about. Hard work pays off and when it does it’s fantastic.”

An eighth Royal Ascot winner for the aforementioned Charlton, this was his first at Group One level and testament to his extraordinary patience after Al Kazeem – second in York’s Great Voltigeur Stakes in 2011 – was struck down with injury.

“You need to have a lot of patience in this game, it’s what Sir Henry Cecil always said, and we’ve been patient with him but you need the owners,” said Charlton with characteristic thoughtfulness as he paid tribute to owner-breeder John Deer.

“I thought for a minute we weren’t going to get there, but James seemed confident.

“Like most people I’d love to have a runner in the Arc.

“I’d like to compliment James. He’s a young jockey who in the past had not ridden good horses but I have found him to be sensible, honest, and a very nice person to deal with.

“A lot of owners could say ‘get Johnny Murtagh or whoever’ but they stuck with him. We’ve asked him questions and he has delivered, but you can’t do it without the horse.”

Hanagan, the 2010 and 2011 champion jockey when based with Malton trainer Richard Fahey, could not hide his disappointment after Mukhadram’s surprise tactics nearly paid off. “When I kicked I thought we had it won,” he said.

As for Camelot who was denied a Triple Crown in last year’s 
St Leger by Encke, his trainer Aidan O’Brien said of the beaten favourite: “He’d had a tough winter with colic and you’ve got to bear that in mind. There are a lot of options – the Eclipse and races like that.”

Earlier O’Brien notched up his third winner of the week when Gale Force Ten – ridden by his son Joseph – battled back to beat Montiridge in the Jersey Stakes.

Having run well in the French and Irish Guineas already this season, Gale Force Ten was sent off the 9-2 favourite having dropped in class and trip.

Ireland’s domination continued when David Wachman’s filly Duntle, a winner of the Sandringham Handicap last year, took the Duke of Cambridge Stakes in a tight finish from Richard Fahey’s pacesetting Ladys First.

Then the James Doyle bandwagon took off. Forty minutes after Al Kazeem’s win, he was simply brilliant on Belgian Bill – a first Royal Ascot winner for George Baker who was a notable racing journalist before becoming a trainer of growing repute.

Doyle then completed the most remarkable 75 minutes of his life, other than his decision to withdraw from his trainee plumbers’ course, as Rizeena flashed home in the Queen Mary, a five furlong sprint for fillies.

“They went an electric pace. When my agent rang to say we had got the ride I was really excited as I saw her win at Sandown and she looked pretty impressive that day,” he said. “She’s a super filly, the American horses don’t hang about do they and must have been four or five lengths clear, but she dug deep and showed what kind of filly she is.”