Josephine Gordon donates winnings from £70,000 race to help injured Alice Procter

Josephine Gordon has played down the "little gesture" of donating the prize-money from her richest success of the season to help injured jockey Alice Procter.

Her percentage from Whitcombe Rockstar's win in the £70,000 London Mile Series Final at Kempton on Saturday will go towards the rehabilitation of a rider who worked at winning trainer's Keiran Burke's Dorset yard.

Procter, 21, was flown to hospital by air ambulance after a fall in a handicap hurdle for women riders at Cartmel in July and was found to have sustained an injury to the spinal cord in the thoracic region which affected the lower half of her body.

"Alice is a huge part of the team," Gordon said on Sunday. "She's always been there leading me up, dealing with Rockstar, and it's the least I can do for her. It's going to be tough for her and it's a little gesture which will help a bit.

"If something like this happens, we all support each other. When we get on the racetrack we're competitive, but we look after each other as well. She's a tough girl – she's going to smash it."

Burke added: "Alice is still a big part of the yard. She's doing the payroll and helping with the entries.

Alice Procter: still a big part of trainer's Keiran Burke's yard

"She did a lot of work with Whitcombe Rockstar and led Jo up a few times. It was emotional at Kempton, as it was when he won at Sandown just a week after the accident."

Also supporting the fundraising effort is Henry Brooke, who broke his wrist in a fall at Worcester but will join several other riders taking part in the Keswick half-marathon on Sunday, September 22.

"I'll have an operation to have the wrist pinned on Tuesday and that gives me 11 days to get ready for the run," said the jump jockey.

"Alice has suffered life-changing injuries and we're aiming to raise £20,000 for her rehabilitation. Any donations, of whatever size, are gratefully received.

"A lot of the jockeys who rode in the Cartmel race will be running, including Charlotte Jones, Becky Smith and Alice Stevens."

Emma Smith-Chaston, Joe Colliver, Theo Gillard and Joe Williamson are among other past or present jockeys set to tackle the run in the northern Lake District, a test which has earned it a reputation for being scenic and challenging, with an extra loop in the Newlands Valley.

Brooke, who had ridden 24 winners in the 2024-25 season at a career-high strike-rate when breaking his wrist in a fall in a 2m7f handicap chase, hopes to be fit to resume race-riding in mid-October.

Procter was having her seventh ride under rules and was seeking her first victory, although she has ridden and trained winners in point-to-points.

She was formerly an event rider and her brother Freddie is a successful jump jockey in the United States, coming within half a length of becoming the first British rider to win the Maryland Hunt Cup in April. 

Donations can be made here.

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