7 days ago
‘I almost had to have a beer to function': How jockey Dylan Turner beat the booze and scored career high
If there was a beer nearby, Dylan Turner wanted it.
If it was a Monday or a Tuesday and he was at home, he would invariably be drinking.
Ditto for many other days.
Battling personal demons and other issues, the former Kiwi jockey used alcohol as a crutch and a coping mechanism.
He doesn't know what the textbook definition of an alcoholic is, but he suspects he was on the brink of being one.
Two months ago, he looked in the mirror and didn't like what he saw.
He hasn't touched a drop of grog since.
The proof has already been in the pudding with Turner's self-imposed booze ban.
There are much bigger Cups than the Townsville Cup but it was a major moment and a sweet reward for the 31-year-old Queensland jockey when he scored the $150,000 race last Saturday.
Good things are now happening.
A few weeks ago, Turner's long-term partner Paige Fergusson-Smith said 'yes' when he asked her to marry him.
'I'm happy for you to tell my story, everyone close to me knows and they are all really supportive of me,' Turner told Racenet, in candid interview.
'For a fair while, I was very close to becoming an alcoholic.
'It was getting to the point where I almost had to have a beer to be able to function.
'If I wasn't riding on a Monday or Tuesday, I was probably drinking while doing something around the house.
'I don't know how bad other people are when it comes to that sort of stuff.
'But I was fighting my demons and I let myself down.
'I somehow managed to keep riding, but sweating (to lose weight) was hard when I was drinking, it takes a huge toll on your body and on your mind.
'I just became numb to it all.'
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After coming across the ditch from New Zealand, Turner had a stint riding in Victoria before moving to the Sunshine State to try to escape some of his demons.
But nothing changed immediately in what had become a chaotic life.
A moment of rare clarity came when he looked in the mirror and told himself, with steely-eyed determination, that things must change.
Turner didn't check himself into a rehab clinic, but instead found his own unique path towards sobriety.
He has gone cold turkey and there is no looking back.
'I have said 'no' to drinking for almost two months now,' Turner said.
'I had to have a good, hard look at myself in the mirror and I said to myself 'you need to pull your head in'.
'I told people around me that I was going to put myself in a situation where I didn't drink and I said it would be appreciated if I wasn't invited to functions where there was going to be alcohol.
'I just isolated myself for the first month, I didn't really go out.
'My partner understood it and she was on my side, but I did feel bad for that first month she didn't get taken out for dinner just because I didn't want to have the urge to have a drink.
'She's a massive part of my success and you could probably say there were times when I probably wouldn't have been alive without her in my corner.
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'I believe that now I can put myself in a situation where other people are drinking and I can have a zero alcohol beer, or a Coke Zero or a water.
'Maybe in the future if I rode a Group or Listed winner, I might sit down with the owners and have one beer.
'But to be honest I don't feel as though it's a situation I want to put myself back in.
'I can feel the difference in the clarity in my head and I don't want to do anything to jeopardise that.
'It is really starting to show in my riding and having a clear head is a major key when riding horses.'
Gold Coast trainer Paul Shailer is a key support for Turner and he is a great ally to have.
Shailer recently opened up to Racenet about his own journey back from the brink and how he had to go to a health retreat to sort himself out after getting his marching orders from the Chris Waller stable in the aftermath of an alcohol-fuelled stable party in 2021.
You sense Shailer can be the perfect mentor for Turner who hopes his Townsville Cup win on Quothquan is just the start of a big riding season.
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'I sat down with Paul and said I want to have a red hot crack and by the end of the season I want to be riding in town and riding big race winners,' Turner said
'I wanted to give it a final go, if I make it I make it and if I don't, I don't.
'I really want to better my best season of winners back home (in New Zealand) which was 50.
'I thought to myself that if things don't work out, I will look at working as a builder, I did three-quarters of my carpentry qualification in New Zealand during the Covid pandemic.
'It was always something for me to fall back on if I did stop riding, as I have a great love for tools and building things.
'I do some of that in my spare time, I might restore a set of drawers off Marketplace for instance.
'I've put myself in a position where I like to respect things, not only for myself but for people around me.
'If I can make something look a little bit better, I will.'
After Turner won the Townsville Cup, he was thrilled to be presented with the trophy by riding legend Damien Oliver who was on course at Cluden Park representing a corporate bookmaker.
QUOTHQUAN flashes down the outside to the win in the North!
He's been knocking on the door this prep and finally breaks through in today's @ladbrokescomau Townsville Cup � #QLDisRacing �
— RaceQ (@RaceQLD) August 9, 2025
Turner wants to enjoy every moment of a fresh crack at a riding career that he had thought about tossing away on several occasions.
He has had a rollercoaster jockey career from the days when he kicked off in New Zealand and faced an early challenge with a speech impediment.
'When I first started race day riding as an apprentice, my boss actually got me to go to speech therapy just to help me talk on camera,' Turner said.
'I used to stutter very badly and talking to new people or saying a difficult word would trip me up.
'I would stutter and I would almost have to restart my sentence.
'I did eight months of speech therapy, twice a week.
