Born in Nottingham on January 3, Hayley Turner has blazed a trail for female jockeys more or less ever since riding her first winner, Generate, in a lowly Class F apprentice series handicap at Pontefract on June 4, 2000. Joint champion apprentice, alongside Saleem Golam, in 2005, she rode out her claim later in that campaign and, in 2008, became the first female jockey to ride 100 winners in a calendar year, courtesy of Mullitovermaurice in a claiming stakes race at Wolverhampton on December 30 that year.
On July 9, 2011, Turner won the July Cup at Newmarket on Dream Ahead, trained by David Simcock, thereby becoming the first female jockey in history to win a Group 1 race outright. She retired from race-riding in 2015 and joined ITV Racing in 2017, but was back in the saddle in 2008. Indeed, Turner made history again when, on November 21, 2023, she reached the milestone of 1,000 winners – making her the first British female jockey to do so – on Tradesman, also trained by Simcock, in a handicap at Chelmsford. Aside from Dream Ahead, she also has a further two Group 1 or Grade 1 wins to her name, and half a dozen Group wins in total.
