Jo on way to be the next Turner
IF tenacity, determination and a refusal to accept that the odds are stacked against you are essential equipment for an apprentice jockey, then Josephine Gordon is fully equipped for the job.
The 23-year-old from Devon has been the riding find of the year. Having been leading apprentice for the winter All-Weather season, she is now giving hot favourite and reigning champion Tom Marquand a run for his money in the championship race for up-andcoming riders during the summer Turf campaign.
Gordon rode her 22nd winner of the Turf season and 39th of the year on Cold Fusion at Newmarket on
AIDAN O’BRIEN landed the Irish Oaks at the Curragh for a fifth time but not with the runner many expected. While favourite Even Song finished a disappointing seventh, the Classic went to stablemate Seventh Heaven, ridden by Seamie Heffernan. The 14-1 winner had been well beaten in the Oaks at Epsom having landed the Lingfield Oaks trial. British raiders filled the places with Hugo Palmer’s Architecture second and Mick Channon-trained Harlequeen third. Friday and trails Marquand by only three winners, with the pair split by Joe Doyle on 23 winners.
If she could lift the title she would emulate Amy Ryan (2012) and Hayley Turner (2005), Britain’s most successful female Flat jockey who retired last year but is coming back to ride for the Girls’ team in the Shergar Cup at Ascot on August 6.
Ironically, Gordon’s win on Cold Fusion came in the race in which Turner made her competitive comeback. ‘When I look at Josephine, she’s much better than I was at the same stage of my career, she’s really good,’ said Turner, nominating her as the most likely current jockey to emulate her achievements.
Gordon’s tally includes wins for Hugo Palmer and Sir Michael Stoute but not so long ago, riding a winner for one of the country’s top trainers would have seemed a million miles away. Her first 60 rides yielded a solitary success and there was an 18-month gap between that and her second victory.
Little wonder Gordon almost turned her back on trying to become a jockey — twice. First when her initial job did not yield rides and then when she felt that progress had failed to materialise.
‘I gave up for a few weeks,’ she said. ‘I went back to Devon to decide what I was going to do. I was looking at jobs abroad, not race riding, just galloping racehorses. But I just thought I had to give it one more chance, otherwise I’d regret it.
‘That’s when I got in touch with Lambourn trainer Stan Moore and said, “I want it but it’s up to you to you give me rides”. We got along and he threw everything my way.’
Gordon pinpoints three wins on Moore’s The Burnham Mare last year as a turning point. She said: ‘It got my name out there. A few other trainers like David Evans picked up on me and others followed.’
Now she can even look back on the testing times as a positive. ‘It did get me down but, having now had these winners, I won’t get cocky. I have been in that dark place and I don’t want to go there again.’