TURNER IS MADE TO PAY HEAVY PRICE
HAYLEY TURNER has described a three-month suspension for breaking jockey betting rules while she was largely acting as a TV pundit as a ‘bitter pill to swallow’.
Flat racing’s best known and successful female jockey placed 164 bets with stakes ranging from £5 to £100 and made an overall profit of £160 on an account opened in her own name with bookmaker Paddy Power.
The account was opened on December 17, 2015, a month after Turner had ‘retired’ and the last bet was placed on July 8 this year.
During that period Turner had largely concentrated on forging a career in the media with work for ITV and dedicated racing channel Attheraces until she announced a more serious return to the saddle in August.
But during that period she still held a jockey’s licence. The BHA conceded that Turner’s bets had not been surrounded with any threats to integrity or been linked to any particular jockey or trainer.
But the independent disciplinary panel rejected a plea from Turner’s legal representative Rory Mac Neice to impose a fine rather than a ban or suspension.
Panel chairman Patrick Milmo QC acknowledged Turner’s contributions to the sport and the work she had done in furthering the cause of female riders but said she had demonstrated a ‘lax and complacent attitude to the rules’.
Turner said: ‘When I was actively riding I would never have had a bet. When I was doing the media work, in my head I was not a jockey.
‘I have never had a bet on my own horse or in a race I was riding in. They were fun bets – I am not a big gambler. I am not an addictive gambler.
‘I accept there has to be some sort of punishment because I was in the wrong. But three months is quite harsh.
‘I clearly broke the rules but I have spent my adult life putting into the sport. It is just difficult to swallow.’