In 2008 Turner became the first woman to ride 100 UK flat race winners during a calendar year. She went on to win eight Group races, including two Group 1 races and a Grade 1 race. She retired from racing in 2015 and became a regular contributor to ITV Racing. She came out of retirement in 2018 and since then has ridden four winners at Royal Ascot.
Background
Turner was born two miles from Nottingham Racecourse in north Nottinghamshire, one of six daughters of Kate and Richard Turner. Her mother was a riding instructor and she learnt to ride at an early age. She later rode out for local trainer Mark Polglase and attended a course at the Northern Racing College before becoming apprenticed to Michael Bell at Newmarket, Suffolk.[1] Her first race ride was on Markellis at Southwell on 27 March 2000. Turner never finished the race, as the horse broke a leg and was euthanised.[1] Her first winning ride was her eighth, on Generate at Pontefract on 4 June 2000.[1] Bell sent her to Tom Amoss, in New Orleans for three months of training. She also spent the winter of 2004 riding out for Godolphin in Dubai.[1]
In 2005 Turner was joint Champion Apprentice with Saleem Golam with 44 winners. She rode her 95th winner in September of that year, thereby "riding out her claim", only the fourth woman to do so in Britain.[1]
Racing career
In 2008 Turner became the first female jockey to ride 100 winners in a calendar year in Britain, when Mullitovermaurice won at Wolverhampton on 30 December 2008.[2] That year also saw high-profile handicap wins on Furnace at Chester and Ascot and on The Betchworth Kid at Doncaster.[3] She secured her first Group race winner on Lady Deauville in the Lando-Trophy in Germany on 16 November 2008.[4] She was voted as Channel 4's Racing Personality for 2008.[5]
In March 2009, Turner was badly injured in an accident on the Newmarket gallops. The head injury initially threatened to sideline her for the rest of the year, but fresh medical evidence allowed her to return to race-riding in mid-summer and she ended the year on 60 winners, her second highest figure.[6][4] While unable to ride she made some guest appearances as a pundit on Channel 4 Racing.
The 2010 flat racing year continued to be successful for Turner; 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 3 races and a Group 2.[4]
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 Turner rode her first Group 1 winner, Dream Ahead, in the July Cup at Newmarket. and repeated the feat the following month winning the Group 1 Nunthorpe Stakes on Margot Did during York's Ebor Meeting.[4] A few weeks later she broke her ankle in a fall at Bath.[7] She received the 'Most Inspirational Sportswoman' Award at the 2011 Jaguar Academy of Sport Annual Awards.[8]
2012 saw Turner ride 92 winners, her second-best season, at a strike rate of 12%, also a career second-best.[4] On 31 May 2012 she became the first female jockey 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 2 June 2012 she became the second female jockey to ride in the Epsom Derby. She rode Cavaliero where she came last of the nine horses running. In August 2012, Turner won the Beverly D. Stakes in the United States riding the David Simcock trained I'm a Dreamer, becoming the first UK-based woman to ride an international Grade 1 winner.[4]
In 2013 Turner was twice sidelined by injuries, breaking an ankle in July and then in September sustaining damage to her pelvis and three vertebrae in a fall at Doncaster.[9]
At the end of the 2015 season, Turner retired from race riding to take up a role in broadcasting with At The Races.[10] She regained her jockey's licence to ride in the Shergar Cup team event at Ascot in August 2016.[11] In January 2017 she became part of the newly-formed ITV Racing team. Later that year she rode regularly in France, where a 2kg weight allowance for female jockeys had been introduced.[12] In December 2017, Turner faced a British Horseracing Authority disciplinary panel when it emerged that she had opened an on-line betting account on her retirement and placed modest bets even though she still held a jockey's licence, which was a breach of racing rules.[13] The panel suspended her licence for three months, acknowledging that the nature of her betting was no threat to the sport's integrity.[14] After the suspension came to an end, Turner returned to regular race riding, with 44 winners in Britain 2018.[4]
In June 2019, Turner achieved her first win at Royal Ascot when she took the Sandringham Handicap on 33/1 outsider Thanks Be. It was only the second time a female jockey had won at the meeting and 32 years since Gay Kelleway's win in 1987. Turner was given a nine-day suspension for her use of the whip on Thanks Be.[15] The following year she won the same race again on another 33/1 outsider, Onassis.[16] In 2022 she won the Palace of Holyroodhouse Stakes on Latin Lover, trained by Harry Eustace, and in 2023 she achieved her fourth win at Royal Ascot when Docklands, also trained by Eustace, won the Britannia Stakes.[17]
By 2023, Turner had competed in the Shergar Cup a record sixteen times, twice winning the silver saddle as the leading jockey at the meeting (2018 and 2019).[18]
Kieren Francis Fallon is a retired Irish professional flat racing jockey and was British Champion Jockey six times.
Lanfranco "Frankie" Dettori, is an Italian jockey based in England. In a career spanning over 35 years, he has been British flat racing Champion Jockey three times and has ridden the winners of 287 Group 1 races including 23 winners of the British Classic Races. His most celebrated achievement was riding all seven winners on British Festival of Racing Day at Ascot Racecourse on 28 September 1996.
Martin Joseph Dwyer is a retired English jockey who competed in flat racing, winning the 2006 Epsom Derby on Sir Percy and the 2003 Epsom Oaks on Casual Look.
Jamie Spencer is an Irish flat racing jockey currently riding in the UK. He has been champion jockey in both Ireland and Britain and has won seven classics, five in Ireland and two in England. Spencer is an advocate for the art of holding up horses late into the races, and then making use of their natural dash of speed.
Joseph Mercer, OBE was an English thoroughbred race horse jockey. He was active from 1947 to 1985, riding 2,810 winners in Britain. Mercer's nickname was "Smokin' Joe.”
Jason Charles Weaver is a former, classic-winning, British flat racing jockey who had his major successes in the mid-1990s. In total, Weaver rode more than 1,000 winners in a career which spanned fourteen years. Since retiring he has worked as a presenter and pundit, and currently works on ITV Racing and Sky Sports Racing. Weaver is one of only seven jockeys to have ridden two hundred winners in a season, a feat achieved in 1994 when he finished runner-up to Frankie Dettori in the jockey's championship.
Colm O'Donoghue is a multiple Group 1 and Classic winning flat jockey. For most of his career, he was based at the Ballydoyle racing stables in Rosegreen, Cashel, County Tipperary.
Tom Queally is an Irish flat racing jockey based in Britain. He rode Frankel in his unbeaten 14-race career.
William Buick is a Norwegian-British flat jockey. He shared the champion apprentice jockey title in 2008 with David Probert and won the Lester Award for Apprentice Jockey of the Year in 2007 and 2008. From 2010 to 2014 he was stable jockey to John Gosden. In 2015 he signed with Godolphin. Buick won his first Group1 race in Canada in 2010 and since then has won Group 1 races in England, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Ireland, Italy, Japan, the United Arab Emirates and the United States. He has won four British Classic Races: the St Leger in 2010, 2011 and 2021 and the Derby in 2018.
Silvestre de Sousa is a Brazilian flat racing jockey who is based in Britain and was three times champion jockey.
Paul Hanagan is a Classic-winning British flat racing jockey. Hanagan was twice been crowned champion jockey on the flat in Britain, riding 165 winners in 2011 to defend his title, having won his first title with 191 winners in 2010. Over a career spanning 25 years, he won a total of ten Group 1 races including the Epsom Oaks. From 1999 to 2022 he rode for the Malton-based trainer Richard Fahey, except for a four-and-a-half year break when he was retained by owner Sheikh Hamdan. He announced his retirement from race riding in August 2023.
Cathy Gannon is a retired Irish flat racing jockey.
Margot Did is an Irish-bred, British-trained Thoroughbred racehorse and broodmare. After being sold cheaply as a yearling and again as a two-year-old she entered training with Michael Bell at Newmarket. As a juvenile in 2010 she showed high-class form, winning twice and finished second in the Albany Stakes, Princess Margaret Stakes and Lowther Stakes. In 2012 she was beaten in her first two races but established herself as a potentially high-class sprinter with wins in the Scurry Stakes and the Land O'Burns Fillies' Stakes. At York Racecourse in August she recorded her biggest win with a 20/1 upset victory in the Nunthorpe Stakes. She never reproduced her best form thereafter and finished unplaced in her five remaining races. She was retired from racing in August 2012.
Josephine Gordon is a British jockey who competes in Flat racing. In 2016 Gordon won the British flat racing Champion Apprentice title, becoming only the third female jockey to win that title after Hayley Turner and Amy Ryan.
Adam Kirby is a Group 1-winning British jockey.
Hollie Doyle is a British jockey who competes in flat racing. She set a new record for winners ridden in a British season by a female jockey in 2019. She came third in the BBC Sports Personality of the Year Award 2020, and was also named The Sunday Times sportswoman of the year. In June 2022 she became the first female jockey to win a French Classic and the first female jockey to win a European Group 1 Classic when she rode Nashwa to victory in the Prix de Diane at Chantilly. In 2022, she came joint second in the Flat Jockeys' Championship, the highest result for a woman to date.
Tom Marquand is a British jockey who competes in flat racing.
David Egan is an Irish jockey who is based in Britain and competes in flat racing. He was British champion apprentice in 2017. From 2019 to 2022 he was retained by owner Prince Faisal, for whom he won the 2021 Saudi Cup on Mishriff. Since July 2022 he has ridden freelance, and achieved two Classic victories on the Roger Varian trained Eldar Eldarov.
Saffron Rose "Saffie" Osborne is a Group race winning British jockey who competes in flat racing.
Amy Ryan is a former flat racing jockey and current TV pundit, who was the 2012 British flat racing Champion Apprentice.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
