The trainer Bill Turner has died aged 78 after having a serious accident on Monday. Turner, who was based in Sigwells in Somerset, was a former jockey and as a trainer became synonymous with the Brocklesby Stakes at Doncaster, having won the traditional first race of the Flat turf season six times.<\/p>\n
He had been in a serious condition in hospital after reportedly fracturing his skull in a fall and his daughter, Kathy, announced his death on Thursday afternoon. Speaking at Chepstow racecourse, she told Sky Sports Racing: \u201cDad passed away about an hour and a half ago.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe got the call in the lorry, I\u2019d made the decision to come here. The horse [Red Snapper] was to run in dad\u2019s name in his honour. Whatever had happened he would have wanted that.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe slipped away this morning. The support from everyone in racing has been absolutely outstanding. I\u2019ve tried to reply to as many people as I could, but I am so sorry if I haven\u2019t replied to you or someone else. The love that man had was absolute.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe wasn\u2019t just my dad and my sister\u2019s dad and Ryan\u2019s grandfather, he was everyone\u2019s dad and the people who he has helped in their careers saw him as a dad. He would have preferred to have been going flat out up the gallops but unfortunately it was a freak accident.<\/p>\n
\u201cI still can\u2019t get round that this injury has done this to him, as I\u2019ve pulled him out from such serious injuries on the gallops. Only last Sunday he was refelting my sister\u2019s salon roof.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bill Turner (right) with the jockey Gina Mangan (left) and his daughter Kathy after Umming N\u2019 Ahing won at Nottingham in April 2023. Photograph: Steven Cargill\/racingfotos.com\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n
Mick\u2019s Yer Man was Turner\u2019s last Brocklesby winner in 2013 and that victory held special significance. Kathy Turner added: \u201cHis best ever moment was when Ryan [While, his grandson] won the Brocklesby on Mick\u2019s Yer Man.\u201d<\/p>\n
Brant Dunshea, the British Horseracing Authority\u2019s chief executive, said: \u201cEverybody at the BHA is deeply saddened by the news of Bill Turner\u2019s death. My thoughts, along with my colleagues at the BHA and everyone involved in the sport, are with Bill\u2019s family and friends, as well as everyone who works at the yard.<\/p>\n
\u201cBill was a wonderful stalwart of our sport. He poured his heart and soul into racing, both as a jockey and then a trainer, and we will particularly miss his annual runner in the Brocklesby Stakes, which he won an impressive six times.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe will do everything we can to support the yard during this incredibly challenging period.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The trainer Bill Turner has died aged 78 after having a serious accident on Monday. Turner, who was…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":67079,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[3004,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-67078","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-racing","tag-racing","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67078","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=67078"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67078\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/67079"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67078"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=67078"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=67078"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}