Doyle in doubt for IJC after ‘indifferent’ Covid result

Superstar British jockey Hollie Doyle is in doubt for Wednesday night’s Longines International Jockeys’ Championship (IJC) after returning an “indifferent” Covid test result on her arrival into Hong Kong on Monday.

Doyle, who is one of seven international jockeys flying in for the prestigious event, will undergo further tests on Tuesday to see whether she is fit to compete in her third consecutive IJC.

“She had indifferent test results, so she’s in doubt and we’ll have to wait and see what the outcome is. She’ll do another test tomorrow morning. We have to see what the test results are,” said Jockey Club chief executive Winfried Engelbrecht-Bresges.

“At the moment, there’s no definite decision. We’ll take every precaution, and to make absolutely sure, we’ll wait until tomorrow.”

If Doyle is ruled out of the competition, it is likely Lyle Hewitson will step in as the next-best ranked jockey in the Hong Kong premiership after only missing out originally because he had fewer seconds than Matthew Chadwick.

“We’ll have a replacement who is a lightweight. It would likely be Lyle because he’s next in the rankings,” Engelbrecht-Bresges said.

“But I don’t want to speculate. Let’s see what the test result is. We’ve had cases where there were positive test results and then we had a negative test result. Sometimes there can be fluctuations, especially if somebody had something before.”

Bowman seeks second IJC title after last-minute inclusion: ‘I feel for Jye’

Doyle is the second IJC rider to encounter Covid trouble after Jye McNeil lost his spot in the line-up because of a positive test last week, with Hugh Bowman stepping in.

Doyle’s husband, Tom Marquand, has also arrived ahead of the IJC and Engelbrecht-Bresges confirmed he is “100 per cent negative”.

Ryan Moore, Jamie Kah and James McDonald have also landed, while Yuga Kawada and Mickael Barzalona are expected to touch down on Tuesday.

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