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TOM MARQUAND, TROVATORE \/ Listed New Year Stakes \/\/ Nakayama \/\/\/ 2025 \/\/\/\/ Photo by @phi56326841 (X)<\/p>\nTOM MARQUAND will be travelling solo this winter in his continuing push to establish a position as a \u201cgo to\u201d Group 1 rider on the international stage. His application to the Japan Racing Association (JRA) is in, and if confirmed, he\u2019s looking at a post-Breeders\u2019 Cup November through December stint that he hopes will advance the gains he has made during the past three winters riding in Japan.<\/p>\n
This time will be different, though: his wife Hollie Doyle who has ridden on her own JRA licence alongside and against Marquand during those three previous stints, will not be on the plane to Tokyo with him. Instead, she will be riding in Hong Kong\u2019s two-track racing cauldron, a four or five-hour flight away to the southwest.<\/p>\n
But as Marquand points out, being apart is nothing new for two elite sportspeople whose marriage is shaped in large part by the intense demands of their careers, with daily travel during the bulk of the year often meaning they are away riding in different corners of Britain and beyond.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re used to it,\u201d Marquand tells Idol Horse as he perches on the arm of a wooden bench outside the Thirsk racecourse weighing room on a wet and blustery autumnal afternoon; Doyle will ride that evening at Kempton Park, 245 miles away in London\u2019s western suburbs.<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u201cI\u2019ve done Australia the last seven or eight years by myself,\u201d he continues. \u201cWe\u2019re actually not used to being in the same place together for the amount of time we got to be together in Japan. Having three winters in Japan together was the novelty, not the other way around.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople imagine we live our lives always together but with our work, we don\u2019t. So we love Japan because we\u2019re there together; it\u2019s not going to happen this year and it\u2019s a shame in that sense because it\u2019s a nice time, but ultimately our jobs are as jockeys and we put that first and we always have done.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s one of those things, if you don\u2019t put your career first in a line of work like this then you\u2019re not going to get anywhere and we\u2019re both very aware of that.\u201d<\/p>\n
In career terms, Doyle felt the need to go her way and test herself in Hong Kong where she has enjoyed flickers of success during brief one and two-fixture fly-ins, and Marquand feels the importance of going back to Japan to build on the solid platform he has laid down there.<\/p>\n
His first time race-riding in Japan came on October 29, 2022. Four rides in, he had his first winner: Catulus Felis for trainer Masayoshi Ebina, the man who in his own storied riding career gained international fame with his brave, almost race-stealing ride on El Condor Pasa in the 1999 Prix de l\u2019Arc de Triomphe.<\/p>\n
Two days in, Marquand had two wins on the board and his third weekend brought a Sunday treble at Tokyo. He wrapped up with a Christmas Day victory, moving on until the next time with 16 JRA wins on his record; the following winter he was back for 20 wins; then last year he turned up at the beginning of November and left in late January with a further 21 wins in the bag.<\/p>\n
His final day was a good one: a treble to leave them wanting more, featuring a Listed win on Trovatore. Now he is eager to nail a Japanese Graded stakes.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s quality that you now strive for,\u201d he says. \u201cObviously, numbers are important and I\u2019ve been really lucky the last couple of years to rack up some nice numbers, but going to Japan is about trying to ride some quality horses and those nice pedigree types. The year just gone in Japan was a big step up from years previous and hopefully I can continue on that path.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe last couple of weeks I was there I was lucky enough to ride some really nice horses, I had two Listed winners, and it felt like the quality was building and that was nice, I really enjoyed that. That\u2019s ultimately why I go to Japan, to ride those types of horses.\u201d<\/p>\n
TOM MARQUAND, TROVATORE \/ Listed New Year Stakes \/\/ Nakayama \/\/\/ 2025 \/\/\/\/ Photo by @phi56326841 (X)<\/p>\n
Marquand \u2013 still approaching his prime years at age 27 \u2013 knows what quality feels like. In his association with William Haggas\u2019 respected Newmarket stable, he has sat on plenty of good horses, notably Economics, currently sidelined but a brilliant winner last year of the Irish Champion Stakes.<\/p>\n
Then there\u2019s Scandinavia\u2019s recent classic win in the St Leger, a call-up for Ireland\u2019s powerhouse trainer Aidan O\u2019Brien, which took the jockey\u2019s Group 1 win tally to 19. And those top-level scores have been achieved across the globe, including Australia where regular visits earlier in his career earned him the nickname \u2018Aussie Tom\u2019.<\/p>\n
That early work ethic and willingness to travel far to experience new environments and accelerate his progress hasn\u2019t waned, he is \u201cpushing it\u201d to achieve and succeed, as is Doyle, he says.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re always pushing, it\u2019s why I do the travelling I do, it\u2019s why I\u2019m here at Thirsk on a Monday after a busy week and a St Leger win, I\u2019m not taking a couple of days off,\u201d he continues.<\/p>\n
\u201cHolIie\u2019s the same after Ascot and things like that. I can\u2019t stress enough how much we\u2019re pushing. This is everything and you want to be the \u2018go to\u2019 Group 1 jockey when there\u2019s a spare one available. I\u2019ve been very lucky the last few years to find them in the likes of Bayside Boy winning a QEII and Galileo Chrome in the St Leger when that ride came up late in the day, and Scandinavia on Saturday. There\u2019s been quite a few good spares that I\u2019ve been able to get on.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd it\u2019s just all about trying to keep yourself in the position that you\u2019re the first port of call, or an early port of call, for those rides when they come up. How you do that is riding winners and riding good winners, which is why it is so tough.\u201d<\/p>\n
Now he is hoping he can break into that elite pool of riders \u2013 along with the likes of Joao Moreira, Ryan Moore, Damian Lane, Rachel King, Cristian Demuro and Oisin Murphy \u2013 that gets the call from Japanese trainers to ride their star horses in overseas campaigns.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s what I\u2019m looking at as a jockey,\u201d Marquand says. \u201cIt\u2019s fantastic riding these horses in Japan but it\u2019s only a small portion of the year and the rest of the year is international racing all round the world, and that\u2019s when it would be really nice to try to get to a point where I can ride some of the travelling Japanese horses.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s been a couple (of approaches) over the summer and I just haven\u2019t been able to make them work, it\u2019s just not fallen right with schedules. Because it\u2019s so busy everywhere (during the summer) the stars need to kind of align for me to get on them: you have to commit so far out because they\u2019re planning those journeys from four, five, six months ahead. It can be tough sometimes, just because of the job I\u2019ve got, obviously we\u2019ve got a lot of horses running all over the place.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut hopefully, come those meetings like Saudi, Dubai, Hong Kong, Qatar, you can guarantee I\u2019m going to be there, so hopefully opportunities like that arise at some point: fingers crossed.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Tom](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/MarquandDoyle-1024x707.jpg\")
TOM MARQUAND, HOLLIE DOYLE \/ Tokyo Racecourse \/\/ 2022 \/\/\/ Photo by @heartscry_2001 (X)<\/p>\n
First things first, though. If the JRA grants his application, he will be working as hard as ever to cement the connections and seal the wins that will take him to his goal, even if it will be a solo experience.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re not treating it like, \u2018oh, no it\u2019s two months we\u2019re not together,\u2019 we do care but we care about our careers and making it work,\u201d Marquand says.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s always that background that our lives are racing, it\u2019s our sole purpose at the moment and we treat it that way. Hence the going to separate countries. It comes back to the hunger element and if the hunger\u2019s not there to prioritise that then you probably are going to slide.\u201d<\/p>\n
He stresses that there is no competitiveness between husband and wife, despite the fact that they are hugely competitive in their daily work, race riding, pushing for the wins that will bring the bigger opportunities and that\u2019s what Marquand\u2019s focus will be this winter.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWill it be as fun without Hollie?\u201d he muses. \u201cProbably not, but I\u2019m not there to have fun, I\u2019m there to work and ride winners and Hollie\u2019s doing her job to ride winners and try and ride good horses as well, so being apart is just a by-product of the situation.\u201d \u220e<\/p>\n
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Related<\/p>\n
Hollie Doyle\u2019s \u2018Tough Decision\u2019 Puts Hong Kong On Top This Winter<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n Related<\/p>\n Tom Marquand And Hollie Doyle Love Their Japan Time<\/p>\n![\"Tom](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/marquand.jpeg\")
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