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I had hoped Lisa Jones would go on to forge a significant career in British racing. But once she had forfeited her 3lb claim she struggled for rides. Her winning total plummeted and she left two years ago for Macau where, it seems, there is less prejudice against women. (Think about that, some of you chaps driving your 4x4s up the gallops tomorrow morning.)
The 24-year-old Hayley Turner, though, could be the one to break the British mould. Hayley picked up a substitute’s slot in this year’s Shergar Cup competition at Ascot when top international jockeys compete in a team championship. She won the first race on the 33–1 outsider Relative Order and was only just nosed out of it on the highly weighted Dark Missile in the second. She also scored a third in the stayers race to finish runner-up in the riders’ table.
It was just the televised boost she needed to supplement a season of solid endeavour which has seen her total 35 winners towards her target of 40 for the full season. Watching her at Sandown the other day ride Tony the Tap in a frantic five-furlong sprint, I was impressed by her compactness in the saddle, even more so by the gutsiness of her drive for a gap which finally closed in her face and denied her the chance of a fast-finishing place. No quarter was asked or given.
Hayley is small, at 5ft 2in, but in no way is she petite or fragile and she has a racing brain. Newmarket trainer Michael Bell, to whom she was apprenticed and who has been her mentor, says, ‘Whenever I watch a race I find myself saying of somebody’s ride, “What the hell were you doing?” I very rarely say that when Hayley is riding. She is invariably in the right position. She puts a horse in with a chance.’
Hayley, says Michael Bell, has rhythm and balance. More importantly for the long term, perhaps, he adds that she is not over-proud, accepting the ups and downs of racing, not resenting it when Jamie Spencer gets the pick of the stable’s rides. ‘She is very dedicated and the staff and owners like her.’ A realist in a male-dominated world. Michael does not predict Hayley Turner will become a champion jockey. But he does insist, ‘She will make a very good living.’ And that is the crucial next plateau for a woman rider in Britain.
Talking to Hayley outside the weighing-room at Sandown the other day, two things struck me. The number of people who passed the time of day with the readily smiling woman pushing back the wisps of fair hair from her forehead and the sheer practicality of a very focused young rider.
The daughter of a Southwell-based riding instructor, who learnt her trade first riding out for local trainer Mark Polglase, then at the Northern Racing School, Hayley took herself to the United States for experience having looked at videos of her early efforts and shuddered at what she saw. Then came the link with Michael Bell, who sent her away for more opportunities in America and Dubai and under whom she shared the 2005–6 apprentice championship, the first female ever to win the title.
Will she go again to Dubai? No, she’d rather stay these days and get more rides through the winter on the all-weather tracks: ‘I’ve now got a mortgage to pay. Out there you can end up spending more than you earn.’
Isn’t she discouraged by what happened to somebody as talented as Lisa Jones before her? ‘She didn’t give it much time really. Everyone has problems the first year after riding out their claim, even blokes — especially blokes. It’s hard for everybody. You’ve just got to put your head down and work through it.’
That she has succeeded in doing just that is evidenced by those 35 victories this year compared with a mere eight for the equally talented and male Saleem Golam, who shared the apprentice title with her.
Hayley Turner has a way with people as well as with horses and that will count. As she says, ‘Riding the horses is the easy part. It’s getting on the right horses that matters.’
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