Hayley Turner becomes first female jockey in Europe to ride 1,000 winners
- Published
Turner was the first British woman to ride 100 winners in a year
Hayley Turner has become the first female jockey in Europe to ride 1,000 winners.
The 40-year-old British rider reached the milestone on Tradesman, trained by David Simcock, at Chelmsford.
"I'm chuffed and relieved. Although it's taken me 20 years to do it, it will probably take the girls behind me half the time," she said.
Turner had recorded her 999th winner on 4 November at Newmarket, with victory on Lunar Eclipse.
The trailblazing rider was the first British woman to clock up 100 winners in a year, and also the first to gain an outright victory at the top Group One level.
In 2019, Turner became the first female jockey to win at Royal Ascot for 32 years when triumphing aboard Thanks Be.
Her achievements have helped inspire a new generation of female jockeys in Flat racing, including Hollie Doyle, Josephine Gordon, Saffie Osborne and Nicola Currie.
"It's nice to see the progression from when I started to now," Nottinghamshire-born Turner told Racing TV.
"It makes me very proud when I think I may have played a very small part in the success of their careers."
Fellow jockeys applauded her in after the 1,000th triumph came with an ice-cool ride on 9-4 favourite Tradesman in a two-mile handicap.
Turner was at the rear of the field for most of the race, but timed her run to perfection to win by one and three quarter lengths.
Tradesman runs in the colours of Khalifa Dasmal, who also owned the Simcock-trained Dream Ahead which provided Turner's first Group One triumph in the 2011 July Cup.