Beaten but still as cheerful as when the day began, Hayley Turner quit the saddle with second place in the November Handicap, the big race on the final day of the Flat season. Few had given her much of a chance on Buonarroti, sent off at 25-1 despite the fairytale appeal of being Turner’s final mount, but the pair bowled into the lead at the two-furlong pole and the jockey acknowledged later that she thought a final moment of glory would be hers.
Alas, George Baker was hacking along behind her on the classy but fragile Litigant, who eventually pulled clear. That meant Turner had followed the example set earlier this year by Tony McCoy and Richard Hughes, all three failing to make it to the winner’s enclosure on the Saturdays when they chose to hang up their boots.
McCoy famously belied his hard-man image by shedding tears as he returned on his final mount in April and a few photographers here let Turner know that something similar was expected from the most successful female jockey Britain has produced. Few riders, however, have ever been so reliably level-headed as Turner, who maintained her equanimity throughout. There might be no one so perfectly made as to really treat triumph and disaster just the same but, in the whole field of horse racing professionals, Turner might be favourite to get closest.
Her very first thought upon dismounting was for the winning rider. “I’m delighted for George, he works so hard. He’s a heavy chap and he has to really put the effort in,” she said. “And still no tears! I feel all right about it.”
It is a puzzle to many that Turner should be giving up now, at the age of 32, when, by the standards of nearly all jockeys, there is nothing wrong with her career. She has had a reasonably productive 2015, including her share of headline moments, and could easily keep going for several more years.
“I could make a good living out of it,” she conceded in a quiet moment between races, sitting with her mum in the weighing room, “but to be a jockey in the position I’m in now, you have to put it all in, you can’t just pick and choose. You have to be at Kempton on a Wednesday night, Wolverhampton on Friday and Saturday and it’s too much.
“I’ve done everything I want to do and I’ve enjoyed every minute of it but I feel ready to do something different now. I spend so much time in my car, it’s quite frustrating. It seems like such a good time to do it and I’d rather do it now and have new projects to get stuck into rather than drag it out.
“And it’s really nice to finish on a high. I’ve had 45 winners, Group winners, winner in Japan, won the Shergar Cup, it’s been a brilliant year to end on and it’s nice to give it up, rather than have it taken off you.”
Turner will soon begin a new career in broadcasting with the At The Races channel, an option that presumably smoothed the way for this decision. “Some people say they can tell I’m quite pleased with it by the expression on my face, they can tell I’m delighted. Everyone thinks I’m going to cry but I don’t feel like crying.”
Unlike Michelle Payne, who became the first woman to ride the winner of the Melbourne Cup, Turner has never complained of chauvinism in racing. Her response to Payne’s success was to tweet: “Girls, it can be done!” and that could also be the message to take from her own career.
Without the advantage of a family background in the sport, she nevertheless became the first woman to establish a place for herself among the top Flat jockeys in this country. Significant barriers remain for any young woman who would like a similar career but, thanks to Turner, there will be many more who dare to dream.
