I scored in a Cup final against Liverpool at Wembley – but nothing beats the buzz I get from my new job in racing
THE image of him whipping off his shirt and wheeling away in celebration after scoring against Liverpool at Wembley will live long in the memory of fans.
But these days, Ben Turner is a million miles away from the glamour of playing Cup finals against Luis Suarez and Co.
In fact, you’re more likely to find the ex-defender mucking out horses than clearing out strikers.
That’s because he is thriving in his second career as a racehorse syndicate manager.
He loves it so much he nows says racing has replaced football as his ‘favourite sport’.
Mind you, winning £20,000 with a ‘p***ed up’ Fabio – the ex-Man Utd star who was his Cardiff City team-mate – at Cheltenham Festival in 2015 certainly helped.
Turner, who made more than 370 appearances for the likes of Cardiff, Coventry and Notts County, also got an England Under-19s cap.
He’s best known for scoring the equaliser in the dramatic 2-2 draw against Liverpool in the 2012 Carling Cup final, which the Anfield side won on penalties.
But after leaving his first-team coach role at Forest Green Rovers in January this year, it’s been full-time with the horses.
And it turns out he’s uncovered a ‘savage’ diamond in the rough who’s already made £30,000 from just ten races.
Smart seven-year-old mare Marsh Wren, trained by Stuart Edmunds, has won six times in all and four of her last five, including at odds of 12-1 last time out.
It’s unlikely even a monster punt at those odds would return the sort of footballers’ wages Turner was used to in his pomp.
But there is the hope Marsh Wren can go onto make a pretty penny when she retires to the breeding shed.
First up, though, is ‘black type’ – essentially racing speak for winning or placing in a top race.
Having ‘black type’ makes your horse more appealing to other breeders – and Turner hopes a good performance at Warwick on Thursday will give his star horse just that.
He said: “I don’t think we will get a better mare to breed from. She is from the sort of family that you want to breed from as well as she is so tough.
“This is Marsh Wren’s time of year, and this is her trip. This is her cup final, and we planned to go here even before she won her last start.
“From what both Stu and (jockey) Ciaran Gethings have said she is looking in savage form at home.
“Her biggest strength is her tenaciousness. There is nothing soft about her, she is just so hardy and tough.”
The same could be said about Turner and his approach to racing and punting.
He told Under The Cosh about his brilliant Cheltenham bet nearly ten years ago – which would have returned a lot more had Annie Power not infamously fell when clear in the Mares’ Hurdle.
That blunder saved bookies £50million but Turner still got three of out four winners.
He said: “I was trying to persuade the other boys to have the bet on the Willie Mullins four who were all roughly even money.
“I said we should split it and put £7,000 on them and we get £15,000 back, we just needed one of Annie Power, Faugheen, Douvan or Un De Sceaux to cross the line in front to get our money back.
“Three of the four won but only Fabio followed on the bet with me.
“I told the other lads to follow but they said ‘oh the missus won’t be happy’.
“Fabio said he was with me and I said, ‘we’ll be all right Fab, we’ll be all right’.
“The third one goes in and we were guaranteed £20,000 up each and Fabio is absolutely buzzing, he’s p***ed off his head, absolutely loving it.
“He’s passing his phone round letting all the staff place bets, absolutely brilliant.
“I remember we were walking out the course and he goes ‘I love you Ben, man’ and I said ‘I love you too!'”
Turner’s involved in a different crowd these days, but maybe a Cheltenham runner will be on the cards in the future.
He explained: “Marsh Wren was purchased on a shoestring budget and we have 30 people involved in her including several members of my family.
“What is great about the syndicate is that they are all working class people who have normal jobs.
“We haven’t got the resources to spend big money out of the point-to-point field but here they are with a horse in a Listed race.
“When I was playing football I was fortunate enough to have half and quarter shares in horses, along with own one outright, but being in a syndicate like this is no less of a buzz.
“We have people in their 20s right through to their 70s involved so we have the full age scale which is great to see.”
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