Marquand aspires to once more achieve fame in Japan.
At the end of the British Flat racing season, Tom Marquand would love to ride once more in Japan.
Before traveling to Japan for nine weeks, the 24-year-old jockey and his wife, fellow jockey Hollie Doyle, competed in the previous two International Jockeys Championships in Hong Kong.
Since Covid restrictions had thwarted their plans in 2021, this was the couple’s first trip to Japan. The fervent Japanese fans immediately fell in love with them.
Marquand cannot wait to return, if invited, after bringing home 16 winners and securing a fourth-place finish on Daring Tact in the Japan Cup and another Group One ride on Justin Palace in the Arima Kinen.
“It is one of the places that everyone in racing should try to visit, just to see it,” he said.
“For as much as people can tell you about it, until you actually go and experience it for at least a couple of weeks, it is pretty mad.
“Everyone should try to get out there. Apart from the racing, it is an amazing country. I’d go back in a heartbeat.”
Marquand and Doyle, who broke his elbow in a fall on January 16 at Wolverhampton and is out for the season, will try to get back at the end of the year.
“We will definitely try to go back this year,” he said.
“Sadly, it is not quite as straightforward as saying, ‘I want to go, I’ll go’, like Australia.
“But hopefully, the fact that we had a successful enough trip will help. The application for a licence is based on your success from the year previous, so it is based on what we have done in 2022 in England.
“We were joint second in the championship and you have to be top three in England and/or have ridden two major Group One winners. We both had three last year, so hopefully that will be enough to get back in.”
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