'I just hooked her on' - Hayley Turner saves fellow jockey in stalls incident

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Hayley Turner's experience and instinct prevented a potentially dangerous scenario at Lingfield as she grabbed hold of a fellow rider to remove her from her horse who then crashed through the bottom of the stalls.

Critique was set to be the 11th ride for apprentice jockey Hannah Fraser in the opening 1m4f handicap (1.00) but when entered in the stalls he ducked towards the bottom to try to break free to which Turner, who was in the stall to his right, quickly responded.

She first said to Fraser to jump off, spotting the horse was already heading under, and to release her reins. As Critique wriggled, she pulled Fraser across to her side so that she balanced on the ledge while a stalls handler jumped into the stall to the 7lb claimer's left to push her legs away from Critique as he broke free.

While Critique did not take his chance, the events did not interfere with the race itself as Turner then guided the well-backed Sundayinmay to a comfortable win.

Turner told Sky Sports Racing: "She was quite lucky actually – the horse kept pulling his head down. She had hold of it and she nearly went with him. I told her to drop her reins otherwise she'd go with him.

"She hasn't had many experiences like that. She was concentrating so much on keeping the horse's head up that she forgot that he was going and she'd go with him, so I just hooked her on."

Fraser recalled the incident and said: "My horse got his head down and there was no getting it back up, so he broke out. Hayley grabbed hold of my horse and tried to get his head up too but then told me to jump off. When they have their head that low there's no getting back up."

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