Hayley Turner brings up landmark 1,000th winner with victory on Tradesman at Chelmsford
Jockey Hayley Turner secured her 1,000th winner as Tradesman scored at Chelmsford.
Turner becomes the first female rider in the UK to reach the four-figure milestone.
The 40-year-old has been inching closer to the landmark win over the last few months and secured her 999th success at Newmarket on November 4.
After 15 failed attempts, she finally made it across the line in first place again as the David Simcock-trained Tradesman won the Illuminate Christmas Ball Handicap over two miles to complete a hat-trick of wins at Chelmsford.
Turner gave Tradesman, who was sent off the 9/4 favourite, a supremely confident ride as she held him up at the rear of the field with A Poet’s Secret setting the pace.
After leaving the back straight, she gradually weaved her way through her rivals and, after finding a gap, Tradesman stormed clear in the closing stages to win comfortably from De Vega’s Warrior.
Turner told Racing TV: “I did drag it out a little bit and made a little bit of a mountain out of a molehill, but I got there eventually. It’s good.
“It’s taken me plenty of time. It’s nice to see the girls behind me that are up and coming – Hollie (Doyle), Saffie (Osborne), Nicola (Currie), Josephine (Gordon) – they are all riding so well every day and although it’s taken me 23 years to do it, it will probably take them half the time. It’s nice to see the progression from when I started until now, it’s great.
“It feels like a bit of a relief now I’ve done it. I kind of put pressure on myself but I’m just chuffed now.”
Turner rode her first winner back in 2000 and became joint-champion apprentice in 2005 before making history as the first female jockey to ride 100 winners in a year in 2008.
She has also enjoyed success at the highest level, winning the 2011 Group One July Cup with Dream Ahead, whose owner Khalifa Dasmal also owns Tradesman.
Dream Ahead’s triumph was quickly followed by another elite-level success on board Margot Did in the Nunthorpe Stakes at York just over a month later.
