Hayley Turner

Hayley Turner is a professional jockey based in the United Kingdom. She was born on 3 January 1983.

Turner is widely considered to be the first woman to achieve a sustained, day-in, day-out, successful career as a professional jockey in the UK. Kirsty Milczarek and Cathy Gannon are the two other female jockeys currently riding in the UK who have come closest to following Turner's achievements. Hayley Turner's success has seen an enormous increase in the number of female apprentice jockeys riding in the UK in the second decade of the 21st century.

She became the first female rider to ride 100 UK Flat race winners during a calendar year (a huge achievement for any rider), when winning on 'Mullitovermaurice' at Wolverhampton on 30 December 2008. 2008 also saw Turner ride in over 900 races in the UK - one of only five riders to achieve the milestone that year.

Racing career

Hayley Turner grew up in north Nottinghamshire. She has become one of racing's most popular and well regarded riders. Hayley is respected for her down-to-earth personality, no-nonsense, sensible race-riding and toughness in a finish.

Hayley's first ride in public was aboard Markellis at Southwell on 27 March 2000. Her first winning ride was on Generate at Pontefract on 4 June 2000. She rode her first Group winner on Lady Deauville in the Lando-Trophy in Germany on 16 November 2008.

Hayley has ridden winners for a great deal of trainers but is best known for her ongoing and successful association with Newmarket based Derby winning trainer Michael Bell, with whom she was apprenticed in 2005 when winning the Champion Apprentice title. She was joint Champion Apprentice with Saleem Golam with 44 winners in 2005. Since then she has silenced the doubters by bucking the trend of champion apprentices subsequently struggling with their careers by going from success to success. She was voted as Channel 4's Racing Personality for 2008.

High profile handicap wins in 2008 on Furnace at Chester and Ascot raised Hayley Turner into the higher echelons of the weighing room, as did wins on The Betchworth Kid.

In March 2009, Hayley was badly injured in an accident putting a horse through starting stalls on the Newmarket gallops, which initially threatened to sideline her for the rest of the year. She made some guest appearances as a pundit on Channel 4 Racing during this time. However, when fresh medical evidence allowed her to return to race-riding in mid-summer she was instantly back to riding successfully. Hayley ended the year on 60 winners, her second highest figure despite missing much of the season.

The 2010 Flat racing year continued to be successful for Hayley; highlights included a first Group 1 ride on Barshiba in the Nassau Stakes at Glorious Goodwood, and winning the Group 2 Lancashire Oaks on the same horse at Haydock a month earlier; and a successful partnership with classy two-year-old Margot Did, which included two winners and second places in two Group 3s and a Group 2.

In January 2011, Turner had her first race-rides at the Meydan racecourse in Dubai, as part of the annual Dubai Racing Carnival. In July 2011 Hayley rode her first Group 1 winner, Dream Ahead in the July Cup at Newmarket, and repeated the trick the following month winning the Group One Nunthorpe Stakes on Margot Did during York racecourse's Ebor Meeting.

2012 saw Hayley ride 92 winners, her second-best season, at a strike rate of 12%, also a career second-best. She ended the year early to have surgery on an ankle. On May 31, 2012 she became the first female jockey in history to ride on the Dubai World Cup night.She rode Margot Did in the Al Quoz Sprint where she finished well back in the field.On June 2, 2012 she became the second female jockey in history to ride in the Epsom Derby.She rode Cavaliero where she came last of the nine horses running. Most significantly in 2012, Hayley won the Beverly D. Stakes in America, becoming the first UK-based girl to ride an international Group One winner.

Personal life

Hayley Turner is often regarded as the "pin-up girl" of UK horseracing, and has been frequently featured by daily newspapers as well as being chosen as the face of media campaigns within the sport. However Turner generally shuns the role of 'attractive girl', preferring to trade on her craft in the saddle.

Turner is like many UK Flat jockeys based in Newmarket, Suffolk: also the base of her main employer, Michael Bell.

Hayley is also one of few top class sportsmen or women, who admit to suffering from Coeliac Disease.

Hayley Turner is a popular, though sensible, Twitter user. During the early years of Hayley's career a popular website and racing forum was devoted to her. It subsequently closed, however of 2011 a new, official website updated by Hayley has opened at http://www.hayleyturner.com.

In 2011, Hayley Turner became a Member of the Jaguar Academy of Sport[1] and she received the 'Most Inspirational Sportswoman' Award at the 2011 Jaguar Academy of Sport Annual Awards.[2]

Winners per year

Per calendar year

Major wins

United Kingdom Great Britain
United States United States

External links

References

  1. ↑ Jaguar Academy of Sport. "Homepage".
  2. ↑ Jaguar Academy of Sport. "Jaguar Academy of Sport Annual Awards".