Trainer Bill Turner is in hospital in a serious condition after sustaining a fracture to his skull in a fall on Monday.
Turner, who turned 78 on Sunday, was knocked over by a horse at home causing him to hit his head and resulting in a major fracture to his skull, according to his daughter Kathy.
He was rushed to hospital and has been on a ventilator overnight. His situation was described as being very serious.
Turner began his career in racing as a jockey but switched to training after breaking his leg in a fall at Newton Abbot.
Based in Sigwells, near Wincanton, on the Somerset-Dorset boundary, Turner has become known for his successes in the opening two-year-old race of the Flat turf season – the Brocklesby Stakes – which he has won six times, most recently with Mick’s Yer Man in 2013.
Mick’s Yer Man went on to gain Listed success for Turner at Ascot, when ridden by his grandson, former apprentice Ryan While, and the trainer also enjoyed Listed success with The Lord in 2006.
Red Snapper has been declared to run for the yard at Chepstow on Thursday, an engagement the juvenile will take up as the family believe Turner will have wanted the horse to run.
One of the races always marked on Turner’s calendar was the Brocklesby at Doncaster. Run over five furlongs, it has featured a Turner runner in every edition since the turn of the century.
His first winner came in the 1996 running when Indian Spark, ridden by Tim Sprake, won at odds of 100-30. He went on to win the race a further five times, more than any other trainer. His closest recent attempt was in 2024, when 20-1 shot Bob The Bandit finished second.
Turner made headlines of a different kind in 2009 when riding a zebra to his local pub. He had bought the animal from a wildlife park in Holland and was riding it just two and a half weeks later.
He told the BBC at the time: “The first two or three days I had him I thought to myself, ‘You silly old devil, I’ve bitten off more than you can chew here.’ We were having real problems.
“We have broken in everything else – donkeys, ponies, racehorses, carthorses, every other type of horse available – and it was just a challenge I wanted to do.”