Jett Turnbull turning heads and achieving milestones

Fifth generation harness racing driver Jett Turnbull has undoubtedly turned heads in his debut season – but the teenager keeps a tight rein on his accomplishments and ambitions.

After recording his first win at just start number two, a day after his 16^th birthday in July, Turnbull went on to amass 51 winners from 215 drives – carving out a place/starts strike rate of 43%.

“When I started out, I was really just aiming to get 10 winners for the season. I would have been happy with that,” Turnbull said.

“It’s been an amazing ride – I sometimes have to stop and think is it a dream or is it real?” he laughed.

And after a perfect start to his career, the youngster has continued season 2024 in the same fashion – recording five wins in three days in the opening week, including four in one night at his home track of Bathurst on Wednesday (Jan 3).

“I’ve driven four at Dubbo twice and now once at Bathurst.  It was definitely a lot better feeling at my home track where the horses are better and the racing is faster, but it was terrific fun at Dubbo too, where there’s tighter racing and getting a win is often harder,” he said.

Turnbull’s harness racing pedigree is undisputedly “black type”. His father Nathan is a successful trainer-driver (the son of Steve Turnbull and grandson of the legendary AD Tony Turnbull) while his mum Carly is the daughter of Greg and Deanna Rue.

After showing outstanding skill as a mini trotting driver, Jett continued to impress while completing the required trial drives to gain his license.

Just 12 months ago, he left school to pursue harness racing driving as a career – and it would be difficult to find a better workplace to hone his skills than the shared family training base at The Lagoon.

“It was always going to be horses for me, although for the first years of my life dad didn’t do harness racing, he had another job,” Turnbull said.

“Then as we were growing up, dad asked mum if she wanted to get back into it – I would have been five or six then, and by the age of about nine I was trackworking,” he said.

“Every day of my life since, I’ve worked with horses and it couldn’t have been a better way to learn, out there with Pop and dad and everyone.  I was literally learning things every day, and they still teach me things all the time,” he said.

While his horsemanship skills were being embedded on a daily basis, it’s handy as well that useful feedback is also never far away.

“If something bad happens in a race or in work, they pin me on it straight away!” he admitted.

“There’s no doubt dad is my biggest teacher.  After every single time at the races, he sits me down and we go through every single drive and he gives me feedback about what was good, what I could have done better or different.

“It’s not hurtful or upsetting – just good feedback for me to learn from, and that’s how I take it, as a learning curve. I’ll think about it and have a good look at the race again if I need to, for the future to drive better.”

Turnbull said he also closely watched the leading drivers, such as Cam Hart, “because that’s what I want to be like when I’m older”.

“Hopefully bigger results can come in the future, but what I’m doing at the moment feels pretty good,” Turnbull said.

“I’m just loving driving for different people and finding ways to keep improving, but I’m keeping a lid on things.  I am just enjoying the ride and seeing where it takes me.”

by Terry Gange, for Harnesslink