Josephine Gordon goes freelance after relinquishing key role with Hugo Palmer

Josephine Gordon is to ride as a freelance in 2019 after relinquishing her role as stable jockey to her long time employer Hugo Palmer.

The former champion apprentice rode 56 winners in 2018, a year after the link with Palmer helped her become only the second female jockey to ride 100 winners in a calendar year.

The 25-year-old's move from Lambourn to Newmarket two years ago to join Palmer's powerful yard, which then housed nearly 200 horses, proved very fruitful initially, with Gordon completing her first century when she steered the Palmer-trained Thunderbolt Rocks home at Wolverhampton in November 2017.

Gordon reached 100 winners in 2017 with victory on Thunderbolt RocksCredit: Jonathan Hipkiss

Gordon then went onto surpass that tally and reached 106 winners be the end of that year of which 33, including a first success at Group level, were for Palmer.

In contrast, Gordon registered only 56 winners in 2018, 24 of which were for her main employer, although she was out of action for nearly a month with a hand injury she sustained at Ayr in June.

The jockey said: "I would like to thank Hugo for taking the plunge and appointing me two years ago which gave me so many opportunities including winning my first Group race. Also I was able to ride in my first Grade 1 race in the US which is something I'll never forget.

"The plan now is to ride as a freelance this year and I've been riding out for a few new trainers lately including Ed Dunlop who I've never ridden work for before. Hopefully I can also still ride for Hugo but it makes sense to keep my options open. It's the start of the season and everyone is raring to go and it's a good time to be in Newmarket."

As well as Palmer, Gordon received good support from the likes of William Jarvis, Sir Michael Stoute, Gay Kelleway and long time backer Phil McEntee in 2018 and has registered two winners on the all-weather this year.

Gordon may well get further opportunities from the Palmer yard, for whom she rode Encrypted to win a Listed race at Lingfield as recently as last November, but James Doyle is understood to be first choice jockey again in 2019 for the Kremlin Cottage yard.

Her agent Phil Shea said: "Josie is eager to branch out this year and is fully fit and raring to go.

"It's not been easy to get rides for any jockey with the flu thing going on which has meant some of her intended mounts this weekend can't run. Beyond that, the turf season is what it's all about."

Get ahead of the game with Get Your Eye In – exclusive Saturday preview content on racingpost.com and the Racing Post mobile app from 2pm on Friday