Hayley Turner 'very proud' after riding 1,000th winner of her career at Chelmsford

Hayley Turner sealed a landmark 1,000th career winner at Chelmsford on Tuesday when helping Tradesman complete a hat-trick.

Victory aboard the four-year-old in the 2m handicap was a 979th British winner for Turner, who also has 21 successes abroad to her name.

Turner had been winless for 26 rides since partnering Tradesman to his previous victory at the same track last month and 33 days on from that success told Racing TV: “I did drag it out a little bit and made a mountain out of a molehill but I got there eventually. It took me plenty of time.

“It’s nice to see the girls behind me that are up and coming, the likes of Hollie [Doyle], Saffie [Osborne], Nicola Currie, Josephine [Gordon], they’re all riding so well every day. Although it’s taken me 20 years to do it, it’ll probably take them half the time but it’s nice to see the progression from when I started to now.

“It makes me feel very proud when I think that perhaps I played a very small part in the successes of their career.

“I’ve seen a lot of the girls come and go and they’ve all played a big part in getting the female riders to where they are now.

“My auntie Jenny and Wayne have been to Newcastle twice, Wolverhampton and they’ve come all the way to Chelmsford to watch. Unfortunately, the other members of the family couldn’t get here but I couldn’t ask them to be driving around the country at this time of year.

“It feels like a bit of a relief now. I kind of made a big deal about it and then put pressure on myself. I’m just chuffed.

Turner has partnered winners in the US, Ireland, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, South Africa and Mauritius since getting off the mark on Generate in a Class 6 apprentice handicap at Pontefract in 2000. 

Nottinghamshire-born Turner served her apprenticeship under Michael Bell in Newmarket and was joint champion apprentice with Saleem Golam in 2005. Turner rode out her claim in the same year before becoming the first female jockey to reach 100 British winners in a season in 2008.

That century remains the 40-year-old’s best season numerically and Turner added another personal accolade to the collection when landing the Group 1 July Cup aboard Dream Ahead in 2011, for the same David Simcock and Khalifa Dasmal combination as her 1,000th winner. Turner followed up that breakthrough top-level success with another a month later in the Nunthorpe, steering 20-1 shot Margot Did to victory for Bell.

Hayley Turner acknowledges the crowd after winning the Nunthorpe Stakes on Margot DidCredit: Mark Cranham (racingpost.com/photos)

Turner said: “I’m sure Khalifa Dasmal will be watching at home and obviously I’m hugely grateful to him. I’ve had a lot of fun on his horses over the years. David Simcock gave me my first Group 1 winner and has been a supporter of mine from day one.

“It was particularly nice to have a Group 1 winner for Michael Bell on Margot Did in the Nunthorpe because he helped get me going as an apprentice, which was one of the hardest things to do at that time because girls weren’t that fashionable. He really put his neck on the line, as did David to get me here.

The Simcock-trained I'm A Dreamer was a third top-level winner and a first outside Britain for Turner, in the Beverly D at Arlington Park, Chicago, in 2012. Turner retired from the saddle at the end of 2015 and received an OBE for services to horseracing a year later.

After a spell as a broadcaster, Turner returned full-time to race-riding in 2018 and that decision was vindicated when she enjoyed her first Royal Ascot winner in 2019.

Turner became only the second female jockey to ride a winner at the royal meeting courtesy of Thanks Be’s 33-1 Sandringham success, 32 years after Gay Kelleway’s win in 1987.

Turner won the Sandringham again the following year on Onassis for Thanks Be’s trainer Charlie Fellowes at the same odds. She also rode Harry Eustace’s first Royal Ascot winner – Latin Lover in the Palace of Holyroodhouse Stakes – last year and combined with the same trainer in June to take the Britannia Stakes with Docklands.

While her winningmost track is Lingfield with 127 victories, Turner has enjoyed further success at Ascot in the Shergar Cup. She competed in the team event for a record 16th time when helping the Ladies team to glory with Doyle and Osborne in August. Doyle won the Silver Saddle for leading jockey at the meeting, a feat Turner achieved in 2018 and 2019.

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