Gordon can’t end 30-year drought

NOT tonight Josephine, as Napoleon told his excited Empress. And so the 30-year wait for a winning woman jockey at Royal Ascot goes on.

The great hope yesterday was wearing the blue of Godolphin: the talented 24-year-old Devonian Josephine Gordon. But her mount, Dream Castle, 9-2 second favourite in the afternoon-opening Jersey Stakes, lacked the required finish and came fifth.

‘The turn of foot just wasn’t there,’ lamented Gordon (right) as she exited the paddock. There, despite temperatures exceeding 90°F, top hats and tailcoats remained resolutely on, going to prove Noel Coward’s line that ‘though the English are effete, they are quite impervious to heat.’ Royal Ascot has many famous heroines.

As our present monarch recalled in her programme notes, the origins of the royal meeting date back to 1711, when Queen Anne declared Ascot to be ‘ideal for horses to gallop at full stretch.’ And our own Queen, landlady of the place, hurried to her Berkshire acres by helicopter from Westminster, where she had performed her role as starter of the Parliamentary Mistakes. Despite Royal Ascot’s distinguished female lineage, the only race won by a woman came in 1987, courtesy of Gay Kelleway on Sprowston Boy in the Queen Alexandra.

Gordon had 87 winners last year and is up to 55 so far this. Some thought she would struggle for good rides, despite her talents. But she was handed numerous rides by trainer Saeed bin Suroor, under the aegis of Sheik Mohammed of Dubai, supreme master of Godolphin.

In France, women receive a 2kg (4.5lbs) allowance in most races. Gordon, the champion apprentice, does not entirely like the idea.

‘There are probably pros and cons,’ she said. ‘It gives a lot of females opportunities, but I find it a bit offensive.’

Watching in the paddock was the urbane Baron Edouard de Rothschild, president of Galop France, who introduced the ruling. He said: ‘It is nothing to do with men’s egos or women’s egos. It is to encourage trainers to give rides to women.’

After Gordon’s Dream Castle disappointment, Bin Suroor patted her on the shoulder. Her final chance came on Gymnaste in the Sandringham Stakes. The John Gosden-trained two-year-old started 6-1 favourite but finished nowhere. Not tonight.