James Doyle is back – and Underwriter opens his account

Welcome back, old friend! Wathnan Racing’s retained jockey James Doyle had been on the sidelines for just over a month with a broken collarbone. It was great to see him make a winning return to the saddle yesterday, with Underwriter making an impressive racecourse debut at Ayr.

The colt was Wathnan’s first two-year-old runner of 2025 and had been bought at the Doncaster breeze-up sale in April. He was following the route taken last year by Electrolyte, who came from the same sale and made a winning debut for Wathnan at Ayr, before being beaten only a nose at Royal Ascot. Both horses are trained by Archie Watson.

‘I was very pleased with him,’ Doyle told reporters after yesterday’s race. ‘He did everything very professionally and I wasn’t expecting him to pick up that well.’ Asked about plans for Royal Ascot, Doyle replied: ‘Looking ahead, we’ve plenty more [horses] to come out and we’ll try to slot them all in…. Archie has a good handle on these speed horses.

Reflecting on his injury, Doyle added: ‘There is never a nice time for something like that to happen. It was frustrating sitting on the sidelines watching the Guineas, but it’s great to be back.’