Jockey

Josephine Gordon, 31, hails from Chittlehampton, Devon and rode her first winner, Chester’slittlegem, trained by Jo Hughes, in an apprentice training series handicap at Bath on September 4, 2013. However, she faced a protracted wait for her second, Shamrock Sheila, trained by Stan Moore (to whom she was apprenticed) in a handicap at the same venue on June 24, 2015.

After riding 16 winners in 2015 as a whole, Gordon rode 87 winners in 2016, including 50 in the qualifying period for the apprentices’ championship. Thus, she became just the third female jockey, after Hayley Turner, who tied with Saleem Golam in 2005, and Amy Ryan in 2012, to win the apprentices’ title. In 2017, Gordon fared better still, riding 106 winners – of which 33 were trained by her principal employer, Hugo Palmer – to become the second female jockey, again after Turner, who rode exactly 100 winners in 2008, to reach a century in a single season.

In 2018, notwithstanding breaking a bone in her left hand in a stalls incident at Ayr in late June, which kept her put of action for nearly a month, her seasonal tally dropped to 56 winners and the following February Gordon left Palmer to go freelance. She has not hit the same heights since, but has over 400 winners to her name, including eight Listed and two Group race winners. Her biggest single payday, though, came during her record-breaking season in 2017, when she won the Victoria Cup at Ascot on Fastnet Tempest, trained by William Haggas.

Thomas Geoffrey ‘Tom’ Scudamore announced his shock retirement, with immediate effect, on February 16, 2023, shortly after being unseated from Ya Know Yaseff, trained by David Pipe, in a novices’ handicap chase at Leicester. Scudamore had previously suffered concussion when his mount, Royal Defender, was brought down in a ‘bumper’ at Chepstow on February 3 and, having received ‘a right kicking’ at Leicester, he had few qualms about hanging up his boots. Reflecting on his spur-of-the-moment decision, Scudamore said, ‘At my age [40] you have to be careful. I feel I have had a bit of a warning.’

Tom Scudamore, the son of eight-time champion National Hunt jockey Peter, rode his last winner, Pachacuti, also trained by Pipe, in a handicap hurdle at Fakenham on February 2, 2023. All told, he rode 1,499 winners under National Hunt Rules, all bar one on British soil, making him the tenth most profilic Jump jockey of all time in Great Britain and Ireland. He enjoyed his most successful season, numerically, in 2014/15, when he rode 150 winners and finished third in the National Hunt Jockeys’ Championship.

Scudamore effectively rode his first ‘winner’ of any description, Nordic Breeze, trained by Martin Pipe, in an amateur riders’ handicap on the Flat at Warwick on July 3, 1998. However, Nordic Breeze, who was beaten five lengths, was only awarded the race after an investigation by the British Amateur Jockeys’ Association revealed that the first past the post, Broughtons Lure, was ridden by former American professional Angel Monserrate, masquerading as amateur ‘Angel Jacobs’.

Over obstacles, Scudamore rode his first winner, Young Thruster, trained by Nigel Twiston-Davies, in an amatuer riders’ novices’ hurdle at Newton Abbott on November 4, 1998. He was champion amateur rider in 2000/01 and, having turned professional, rode his first winner in the paid ranks, Belle D’Anjou, also trained by Martin Pipe, in a handicap hurdle at Chepstow on October 6, 2001.

Jonathan Burke, who hails from Glengoura, near Mallow, County Cork, was only 16 when he rode his first winner, Trendy Gift, owned and trained by his father, Liam, in a mares’ bumper at Cork on April 9, 2012. He recorded his first major success on Very Much So, trained by Willie Mullins, in the Goffs Land Rover Bumper at Punchestown on April 29, 2014 and turned professional the following month.

Burke rode his first winner as a professional, Golden Kite, trained by Adrian Maguire, in the Connact National at Roscommon in June 9, 2014. Indeed, he was still only 18 and claiming 5lb when he was offered the job as retained jockey to the late Alan Potts, for whom he went on to win the Champion Chase at Gowran Park on Sizing Europe, the Future Champions Novice Hurdle at Leopardstown on Sizing Europe and the Maghull Novices’ Chase at Aintree on Sizing Granite, among other high-profile races.

An injury-plagued campaign in 2016 effectively sounded a death knell for the association with Potts and, in July 2017, Burke crossed the Irish Sea to become stable jockey to Charlie Longsdon in Over Norton, Oxfordshire. He has subsequently occupied the same position with Tom George in Slad, Gloucester and, more recently, with Fergal O’Brien in Withington, near Cheltenham, following the retirment of the previous incumbent, Paddy Brennan.

Burke enjoyed his most successful season on British soil in 2021/22, when he rode 63 winners. He has five Grade 1 win victories to his name, including the Fighting Fifth Hurdle at Newcastle on Not So Sleepy, trained by Hughie Morrison, in 2021 and back-to-back renewals of the Long Walk Hurdle at Ascot on Crambo, trained by O’Brien, in 2023 and 2024.

Born in Brighton on May 12, 2000, Jason Watson rode his first winner, Many Dreams, trained by Gary Moore, in an apprentice handicap at Salisbury on May 18, 2017. His inaugural season yielded just one more winner from a total of 41 rides, but in 2018 he rode an astonishing 111 winners – 77 of which came in the ‘window’ between the Guineas Festival at Newmarket and British Champions Day at Ascot, on which the apprentices’ title is decided – and rode out his claim on Archimento, trained by William Knight, in a handicap at Kempton on October 8. Seasonal highlights included winning the Stewards’ Cup at Goodwood on Gifted Master, trained by Hugo Palmer, and the Premio Lydia Tesio at Capannelle on God Given, trained by Luca Cumani.

In 2019, as stable jocket to now-retired Beckhampton trainer Roger Charlton, Watson rode 97 winners, including his first domestic Group 1 winner, Quadrilateral, in the Fillies’ Mile. His seasonal tally was all the more remarkable for the fact he was sidelined until the end of March after fracturing four vertebrae when his mount, Teresita Alvarez, stumbled badly and threw him to the ground at Kempton Park on January 4. However, after a less prolific season in 2020, in which he rode just 36 winners, Watson and Charlton eventually parted company in the summer of 2021. All told, Watson has nine Group race winners to his name, at home and abroad, the most recent of which was the Group 3 Goldene Peitsche at Baden-Baden on Al Shabab Storm, trained by Andrew Balding, on August 25, 2024.