Gordon will have to wait a little longer to feel the winning glow

On a sweltering day, woman jockey found the competition just too hot to end 30-year drought

Horses sweat, men perspire, and women glow, as the old saying goes. The first two were definitely true on a sweltering Wednesday, but hopes that a new female star might be added to the Royal Ascot firmament, in the shape of a winner for Josephine Gordon, will have to wait a little while yet.

It was not for want of trying, for this talented and likeable champion apprentice jockey, who was in the mix in the first and the last races aboard fancied runners but found both her partners wilting in the heat. They were not the only ones.

After the last race, the Sandringham Handicap, she said of Gymnaste, who had been sent off favourite: “She wanted to get her toe in a bit but with the sun out all day it has got too firm for her.”

She had had chances in the first race, the group three Jersey Stakes, as well. Saeed bin Suroor, for whom she was riding Dream Castle, said of her: “The way she rides, she is already like a professional. We have been very impressed.”

Before the race, she was unruffled, a small blonde woman tucked up on a chair, pink nails, diamond stud earrings and a tattoo on the inside of her wrist. She texted on her phone at a frightening pace, laughed a lot, and only once looked perturbed: when she and her fellow jockeys had to put on sponsor’s anoraks for a televised introduction. A few minutes in one of those things could cause a person to lose a stone in sweat.

It was not to be for Dream Castle, who, like Gymnaste, found it a bit firm underfoot, and we can add another day on to the 30 years since Gay Kelleway triumphed on Sprowston Boy in the 1987 Queen Alexandra.

One other female star of the saddle is hoping that Gordon has her day: Hayley Turner, who is now a TV pundit. She joked: “I am sick of listening to Gay go on about riding a winner here so it would be nice to see someone else.”

Gordon rides Via Serendipity in the Britannia today, when the forecast is for less of a roaster, and there will be plenty hoping that prediction is on the mark.

Horses yesterday were cooled by a misting machine as soon as they came off the track, three huge turbines producing a fine spray, attended by Ascot’s David Brown. “Some of them love it, some of them hate it,” he said.

It was about the most shaded and invigorating spot on the whole course, and some canny twolegged individuals were also reaping the benefits.

No such respite for surely the hottest people on the course, the Greencoats, the watchful stewards of the Royal Enclosure who are clad in thick, dark green velvet tailcoats. And waistcoats too, just to really put the cherry on the melting trifle.

Dr Guy Mitchell was happy to report that there had been no major incidents, but said: “With this firm ground, any falls could be a worry. But mainly it is about keeping the jockeys hydrated; they eat and drink very little so dehydration is a problem. There are four doctors on course and one of my colleagues is currently looking at one jockey who has possibly got a bit dehydrated.”

Meanwhile, his counterpart with responsibility for the other side of the human-horse axis, vet Clive Hamblin, said: “It has been another good day at the office. The ground and the heat are the issues but we have had no problems.”

Before the last in the pre-parade ring, Jessica Harrington’s lads Niall Amond and Eamonn Leigh explained that trainers will bring portable fans for their charges. “It is just about trying to keep them cool,” said Amond. “Some of the horses take things in their stride, some get all bothered.”

“Just like women,” sighed Leigh. A bold position to take, not least for a man who works for Harrington. But of one woman’s coolness, there could be no doubt. The heat might have played its part in a tale of “not tonight, Josephine” yesterday, but Gordon will be back, and that winner will come.

Perhaps today, when surely everybody will be hoping for the odd cloud or two to take the edge off the heat.