Horse Racing: Woman Jockey Battles Prejudice

"What women jockeys need is someone with the courage to break the mould, and put a woman up on a really good horse," Hayley Turner says. "As soon as we have someone like Julie Krone in the States, who can ride and win against the men in the top races, then you have to hope that the penny will drop."

What Turner modestly declines to add is that at this moment, she appears to have a better chance than any other woman jockey of doing just that.

She could earn a unique place in racing history, in fact, as early as this November. No woman has ever finished a Flat season as the champion apprentice, but with less than two months left, Turner is currently level with Philip Makin on 32 winners, and three clear of their nearest rival for the title, Saleem Golam.

Turner is also just four winners away from becoming only the fourth woman to ride out her apprentice's claim, following in the footsteps of Alex Greaves, Emma O'Gorman and Lisa Jones.

At the age of 22, it is quite an achievement, but she is well aware that male apprentices often disappear without trace when they can no longer claim a weight allowance. Given the prejudice against women jockeys that still persists in horse racing, four more winners could mark the point when her real struggle for wider recognition begins.

"Richard Hunter, my agent, is doing a fantastic job both for me and for Lisa [Jones]," Turner says. "But he'll still have people who ring and ask if Shane Kelly is available, and when he says he isn't, but how about Hayley or Lisa, it will be 'Oh no, I'm not having a girl on my horse'.

"But when I hear something like that, it just makes me want to work harder to prove myself. I'm on a mission to prove a point, and I don't think I could be doing much more than I am. I think a lot more trainers are coming around these days, but it's the owners that we have to sell ourselves to now."

The long list of trainers who have employed Turner this season, which include such prominent names as Henry Cecil and Richard Hannon, suggests that things are changing, and she already has the style and confidence of a senior jockey, even if that status is still a few days or weeks away. But in the early part of her career, as she readily admits, race-riding did not come so easily.

"I'd always wanted to do something with horses, and I spent a lot of time riding out for Mark Polglase when I was at school [in Nottingham]," she says. "Because I was so light, I thought that I'd give it a go.

"The first 20 rides I had, I was terrible. I was that bad that I went to America for three months, because if I kept riding the way I was, I was never going to get on.

"I came back from there really strengthened up, and I'd learned so much about pace and timing, because all the work you do on horses there is all done by the clock. That helped me to get established back here."

Turner also took up an offer from Godolphin to work in Dubai last winter, a significant compliment in itself.

"I went there to save my claim, really, as my boss [Michael Bell] doesn't like me riding on the all-weather," she says. "At the time I was a bit annoyed, I thought it was holding me back, but it teaches you a lot to get on really good horses."

However many winners she rides, or trainers she rides for, and they number 86 alone this turf Flat season, Turner knows that there are those in racing who will never believe that race-riding is a job for a woman.

"I think there's a lot of people like that, to be honest," she says, "though I can't put a figure or a percentage on it.

"There will always be people who think that women aren't as strong as men, and that that is what makes all the difference, even though strength doesn't have much to do with race-riding.

"What really matters is balance and being in the right place at the right time, and getting a tune out of your horse.

"I'd like to make a career out of race-riding," she says, "but I know it's not going to be easy. Look at Philip Makin, he lost his claim mid-season and even though he's a really good jockey he's already finding it harder.

"Every jockey dreams about winning the Derby and the big races, but I just want to keep on riding winners, and riding every day. Is that asking too much?"