Top jockey Hollie Doyle is facing an extended spell on the sidelines after it emerged she had broken her left elbow in a heavy fall at Wolverhampton on Monday evening.
Her husband and fellow jockey Tom Marquand said he had no idea how long she would be absent, describing the setback as “frustrating”.
Record breaker Doyle was aboard the Archie Watson-trained 4-7 favourite The Perfect Crown in a seven-furlong claimer when her mount suffered a fatal injury on the home bend and she was thrown over the horse's head.
She walked away from the incident clutching her elbow but was stood down from her remaining rides and went to see a specialist on Tuesday to determine the extent of the damage.
“She has broken her elbow,” said Marquand. “We don’t really know how long she will be out for as she literally only had her MRIs last night.
“It is one of those fiddly things, as you could put a number on it and you’d be wrong every time anyway.
"To be honest, it is just a case of making sure she gets it right now, because you wouldn’t want to stop halfway through the summer. It is frustrating.”
Doyle tied for second place with her husband in last season's Flat jockey's championship with 91 wins from 613 rides and enjoyed 151 successes in total in 2022.
In 2019 she became the third female jockey in Britain to ride 100 winners in a calendar year, going onto to set a new record total of 116, which she has twice broken. The accomplishment earned her a nomination for BBC Sports Personality of the Year, in which she finished third.
Last year Doyle became the first female jockey to win a European Classic when she rode Nashwa to victory in the Prix de Diane (French Oaks) at Chantilly.
