Hayley Turner, the first female to ride 1,000 winners, said when she started out racecourses did not properly cater for women who regularly risked coming face-to-face with nude men in the changing rooms
16:11, 07 May 2026Updated 17:02, 07 May 2026
Hayley Turner: described her sauna experience(Image: (Alan Crowhurst/Getty Images))
Top jockey Hayley Turner has told how she had to share a racecourse sauna with five naked male riders. Hayley – the first female to notch up UK flat race winners in a year – said when she started out courses did not properly cater for women.
Some had valets – jockeys’ assistants who prepare their silks – in male changing rooms only. Hayley, 43, the first female to ride 1,000 winners, said she was just 17 when she went to fetch her racing clobber – and was confronted by a room full of naked jockeys.
She said: “The first time I ever had a race I went to Southwell and I had no idea. I was oblivious to it all.
Hayley Turner after winning at Ascot in 2024 (Image: PA)
“I went to the valets where I was pointed and I walked in and there were loads of naked jockeys everywhere. I was just, ‘oh my God’. I was 17.
Hayley said she had another shock in the sauna where she was sent to sweat off a few pounds before her race for which she had to make a ‘really light weight’. “That day I was told to go in the sauna because I had a really light weight,” she said.
“The trainer said, ‘oh just jump in the sauna and lose a pound or two’. So I went into the sauna and I didn’t realise that there were adjoining doors to the male changing rooms.
“I walked in the sauna and there were like five naked jockeys sat there. I’ve never been back in a sauna since.”
Hayley, who retired last year, told ITV Racing while many courses have ‘really stepped up’ and ‘improved a lot’ since she started out ‘quite a few haven’t’ – including ‘tracks that we ride at regularly’.
Hayley after announcing her retirement(Image: PA)
There are currently 37 professional women jockeys in the UK. Last year a report claimed female riders still had to enter the men’s changing rooms to access valets at some courses.
A number of racecourses have undergone modernisation to meet strict British Horseracing Authority – aka HRA – rules. All must comply by the end of 2027.
