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‘Looking forward to my next life chapter’: record-breaking jockey announces retirement and pregnancy

Gemma Redrup Gemma Redrup

    • Top Flat jockey Hayley Turner has announced her retirement from the saddle with immediate effect and is expecting a baby, due in October.

    “I have decided to retire from being a jockey following my winner at Southwell last week, especially as I had my first ride at the racecourse on 27 March 2000,” said Hayley, 42. “I am very excited to also announce that I am having a baby in October, all being well, which I have been planning for the last two years. My family and I are all very excited.”

    Hayley has enjoyed huge success as a jockey, riding 1,022 winners and crowned champion lady jockey 11 times. She also became the first female jockey to win a Group 1 outright in Britain when partnering Dream Ahead to victory in the July Cup at Newmarket in 2011, and went on to win the Nunthorpe Stakes with Margot Did at York a month later. The last of her three Group One successes came with I’m A Dreamer in the 2013 Beverly D Stakes at Arlington Park in Chicago. She also became the first female jockey to record a Royal Ascot winner in 32 years when she rode 33/1 shot Thanks Be to victory in the Sandringham Stakes in 2019.

    Hayley became the first woman to partner 100 Flat winners in Britain in a single calendar year, and although she first retired from the saddle in 2015 to pursue a career in the media, she returned two years later. In 2016, she was presented with her OBE for services to horseracing by The Queen.

    Hayley has ridden for some of the most respected trainers in Flat racing and she was keen to thank them upon announcing her retirement.

    “I would like to thank everyone that has supported me over the years, especially Michael Bell, David Simcock, Andrew Balding and Harry Eustace. I would also like to thank my riding agent, Guy Jewell, who has been my agent for the majority of my career,” she said.

    “I am looking forward to my next life chapter but will be focusing on the baby in the short term.”

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    Gemma Redrup
    Gemma Redrup

    H&H features, racing and point-to-point editor
    Gemma is an experienced journalist, having been part of the H&H team since 2014, who is passionate about all equestrian sports, including racing and point-to-pointing. She has enjoyed riding out for top trainers Nicky Henderson and Charlie Appleby and took part in a charity Flat race at Epsom in August 2018. Gemma’s reporting talents have taken her to numerous five-star events around Britain and Europe, as well as European championships.
    Gemma Redrup

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