Gordon Wins At The Lesters

Josephine Gordon's achievement of riding 106 winners in 2017 was recognized at the annual Lesters Awards on Friday evening when she was voted Lady Jockey of the Year. Gordon became only the second female jockey to ride 100 winners or more in a season following Hayley Turner's similar achievement in 2018 and she now has her sights set on 2018 when a fresh set of objectives will be on her agenda. “Part of my goals this year was a listed winner and a group winner and I achieved both,” Gordon said after receiving her award. “I'm always setting myself targets. I haven't really sat down yet and thought of next year and what my goals are going to be. Obviously in the next year I'd like to aim to be a top 10 jockey and maybe one day be champion jockey,” she added. Meteoric would be an accurate way of describing Gordon's ascent in recent years. Having had a single winner in 2013, Gordon failed to get on the score sheet in 2014. She got her career back on track in 2015 when riding 16 winners but took her career to a new level in 2016 when her winners tally surged to 87. That momentum was built on further this year and having forged successful links with powerful trainers such as Hugo Palmer and Charlie Appleby, Gordon has every reason to be optimistic for more of the same in the next 12 months.

The Lesters are sponsored by the Stobart Group and Britain's champion jockey Silvestre de Sousa picked up the gong for Flat Jockey of the Year while Jimmy Fortune, who retired from the saddle in October, was presented with a special recognition award. Andrew Tinkler, executive director of Stobart Group acknowledged the sacrifices jockeys make and commented, “The contribution of jockeys to the sport of horse racing is hugely valued and we at Stobart are delighted to play a part in honouring these fine sporting stars.”