In a dream world, Hayley Turner’s week would have gone something like this. Start it placed fifth in the jockeys’ championship, the patronising of her gender forgotten. Win a prestigious award and get to socialise with Kylie Minogue, whose music she loved as a kid. And then, when Saturday comes, ride in the Derby.
Pure fantasy? Such things are supposedly unattainable for a mere girl in this alpha-male environment. Turner, though, has made a career of breaking down preconceptions, bringing dreams to reality. She was the first woman to ride 100 winners in a year, the first to win two group one races in a season. Who is to say that the final frontier will defeat her at Epsom today?
Until now, the one female to ride in the Derby was Alex Greaves, who finished last on a 500-1 shot in 1996. Cavaleiro will start at a fraction of those odds and the booking of Turner is such a captivating element that the BBC believes it will add at least a million viewers to the audience.
Of course, victory is unlikely. There is an odds-on favourite, in Camelot, and other colts with better credentials. But Cavaleiro is trained by Marcus Tregoning, who won the 2006 Derby with Cavaleiro’s sire, Sir Percy, and Turner is not cowed. “He’s the sort that will suit the Derby track,” she said. “He’s a strong traveller and Marcus thinks he could finish in the first six.”
This was the most she has ventured through a week that, for all its giddy highs, has also been peppered with tension and introspection. For a homespun Nottinghamshire girl, whose pretensions end with expensive shoes, this is a time of headspinning scrutiny.
Advertisement
Turner is on a pedestal now and that brings pressure — firstly, to sustain her stature and then to live up to it. She admits she gave a favourite a poor ride on Tuesday and it stung her. In this of all weeks she wanted no one to infer that the bright lights were distracting her.
She has been unusually cautious with her time, resistant to most media requests, shy of cameras. When we met, Turner sat cross-legged on the lawn at Kempton Park, speaking with the frank self-assessment of one suddenly aware of the goldfish bowl surrounding her.
“I’m lucky to be in this position,” she said. “It’s nice that good trainers feel they can use me now, without it being an issue. I’ve never felt that, if I’d been a boy, this or that would have happened differently. But I need to be completely in the zone to do this. If I don’t give it everything now, I’ll look back and regret it when I’ve stopped.
“Those big wins last year helped my confidence. They also meant that a lot more people know me. I need to build up my brand when I’m riding so that I have options when I finish. I won’t be doing this for ever.”
Her “brand” involves sponsors, a website and Twitter. Satisfying them all is increasingly hard. “I enjoy it but it’s so busy now, I just don’t get time.” She spends endless hours on homework, studying form and running styles. This is the hidden imperative that makes it ever tougher for her to be the sassy, fun-loving young woman beneath the mask.
Advertisement
Turner will be 30 next January but remains single. She has dated other jockeys but permanent relationships are elusive. “If I wasn’t so busy, I don’t know how happy I would be about that,” she said. “The truth is I don’t have time to worry about it. It’s not like I’m home alone every night. When I do get back, all I want to do is sleep.
“You need to be selfish with your time. I have to sacrifice things. If I’m not on a horse, I’m in the car, driving between meetings. It’s very full-on. I get very little time to be sociable and, when I do, I’m tired.”
Her parents live separately but both have been profound influences. Her father, she admits reluctantly, nicknames her Bug. “I go back home regularly and see my sister and her friends,” she said. “They keep me grounded.”
She is not a hermit. A friend has posted on her website a tale of climbing through a kitchen window in high heels. “I can’t remember when that happened but it sounds like something I’ve done,” she said, giggling.
And there are perks to her lifestyle, diversions from the dayjob. Curiously, Turner loves boxing, especially when it involves her home-town idol, Carl Froch. “I went to Atlantic City to watch him and I saw his fight in Nottingham last Saturday,” she said. “I’d ridden at two meetings but I had the sugar kick of a couple of winners and I got a second wind when I was there. The atmosphere was amazing.”
Advertisement
On Tuesday, Turner defeated Jessica Ennis and Rebecca Adlington for the Sportswoman of the Year accolade at the Glamour magazine awards. In racing circles, too little was made of this. Turner was agog with the celebrity swirl but appreciative of the honour. She said: “What pleased me most was winning something in a non-racing audience.”
Turner sat on a table with Little Mix, the X-Factor winners, and continued her surreal evening with another pocket rocket female, Minogue. “My sister wasn’t a bit overawed,” she said. “She asked Kylie if she’d ever considered being a jockey!”
Next day, as if by prior arrangement, Turner’s booked mounts at Beverley included Sylvia Pankhurst and Destiny Of A Diva. She has never felt much of a suffragette, using the maxim that she is a jockey, not a girl jockey. Increasingly, though, she is aware that others will always view it differently.
“There’s a new championship for the girls this year,” she said. “Before, I’d have dismissed it for trying to separate us but now I feel we should all just use it to our advantage. It might help some of the girls develop. Sometimes, it stands out that a girl isn’t fit enough because she’s not riding enough. The more you ride, the fitter you’ll get and the more organised you should be.”
A steely look greets a question about targets. Twice, in recent years, such aims have been sabotaged by falls — first a prolonged absence with a head injury, then a broken ankle. “The only target now is to stay in one piece. Nothing else.” If she manages that, there is no telling what else she may achieve.
Advertisement
Women in the Derby
EMILY DAVISON
Ninety-nine years ago, Davison, a militant suffragette, stepped in front of the Derby field at Tattenham Corner. She was struck by Anmer, owned by King George V, and died of her injuries.
LADY JAMES DOUGLAS
Five years later, in 1918, Lady James became the first woman to own a Derby winner when Gainsborough won the classic.
Advertisement
ALEX GREAVES
In 1996, Greaves, now the wife of trainer David Nicholls, became the first woman to ride in the race. Potruguese Lil was priced at 500-1 and finished last behind Shaamit.
CRIQUETTE HEAD-MAAREK
The last woman to train a Derby runner, American Post, sixth in 2004. Surprisingly, given the success of female trainers in recent years, no woman has trained a Derby winner.