Born in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire on March 30, 1998, Tom Marquand is a graduate from pony racing, a sphere in which he competed for three seasons and met his future wife, and fellow Flat Jockeys’ Championship contender, Hollie Doyle. After leaving school, aged 16, he became apprenticed to Richard Hannon at Herridge Racing Stables, near Marlborough,Wiltshire and rode his first winner, Mecano, in a four-runner selling stakes race at Kempton on December 17, 2014.
On October 17, 2015 – which was, in fact, British Champions Day at Ascot – Marquand rode Sellingallthetime, trained by Michael Appleby, to a short-head victory in a mile-and-a-half handicap at Catterick to win the apprentices’ title, by a margin of two, from his nearest rival. Reflecting on his rapid progress, he said, ‘It’s unbelievable to be in this position. Twelve months ago I hadn’t even ridden in a race.’
After riding 67 winners in 2015, Marquand rode a further 63 winners in 2016, thereby riding out his claim and, as a fully-fledged professional jockey, enjoyed his most successful season, numerically, in 2021, when he rode 176 winners from 1,068 rides, at a strike rate of 16%. That year, he again finished third in the Flat Jockeys’ Championship, having finished fourth in 2019 and third in 2020. In 2022, Marquand shared second place with his by then-wife Hollie Doyle, whom he had married the previous March, and finished fourth again in 2023.
In terms of high-profile victories, 2020 proved an annus mirabilis for Marquand. In March and April, while wintering in Australia, he won both the Ranvet Stakes at Rosehill and the Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Randwick on Addeybb, trained by William Haggas, thereby recording his first Group 1 successes. On June 5, Marquand won the Lingfield Derby Trial on English King, trained by Ed Walker, and although subsequently ‘jocked off’ by Frankie Dettori in the Derby itself, did eventually finish second on 50/1 outsider Khalifa Sat, trained by Andrew Balding, on his first ride in the Epsom Classic. Later in the year, further Group 1 successes followed, courtesy of Galileo Chrome in the St. Leger at Doncaster and Addeybb in the Champion Stakes at Ascot.
