Rachael Blackmore took on the men in a sport dominated by men and won, time and time again

LAST UPDATE | 23 hrs ago

Johnny Ward

RACHAEL BLACKMORE RETIRED just over a decade after she turned professional, when very many in racing had no idea who she was, let alone the sporting public.

If Family Fortunes were recorded yesterday, she would demolish everyone in terms of an Irish jockey the average man or woman can name. Thus ends months of rumours about when it would happen, the timing admirably low-key. Jockeys only win races when they are on horses good enough to compete and Rachael Blackmore would acknowledge that but the last 10 years have been fanciful.

Eddie O’Leary was travelling in a taxi with Henry de Bromhead from Aintree in 2018 when the trainer admitted his concerns about his jockey situation. Blackmore had been doing well as a pro, with 32 Irish winners and an impressive 9% strike-rate in 2016-2017, but he was still surprised by what Michael’s brother had to say.

The O’Leary pair have been ruthless in terms of retained riders and especially trainers, not a million furlongs removed from the way Michael behaves as a businessman. Yet Eddie had a recommendation: Rachael Blackmore.

He had been especially impressed with how Blackmore conducted herself, her professionalism and her ability. De Bromhead would later quip that he gave Blackmore a chance and “everything started winning”.

O’Leary reflected this evening: “She took lady jockeyship to a different level. She was always so professional and gave every horse her very best. It is great to see her finish at the top of her game and powers. We are very glad to have been able to help her in any way.”

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If O’Leary were key to her getting a chance with de Bromhead, John ‘Shark’ Hanlon’s allegiance goes back farther. Blackmore’s first winner was for Hanlon; it was at his yard, Hanlon recalls, that she met Brian Hayes, her partner, and it was Hanlon who gave her the encouragement to go pro.

Blackmore rode her first winner as an amateur jockey in February 2011, when Stowaway Pearl won the Tipperary Ladies’ Handicap Hurdle at Thurles. She turned professional in March 2015, having ridden 11 point-to-point winners and seven winners at the track.

I vividly remember another journalist commenting about how senseless her decision was at the time. Hindsight made a fool of us all.

Blackmore has reiterated the point over and over since: she had limited options as an amateur and had little or nothing to lose. When I asked Jody Townend about doing the same recently, she said she would be daft given the opportunities she gets with Willie Mullins. Blackmore had hardly any good rides as an amateur, and she reasoned that she would be able to do low weights, but the prospect of her becoming one of the top jockeys around seemed outlandish.

Hanlon said this evening: “I’m delighted she went out on her own terms. I’m lucky enough to be part of her life for 15 years or so.

We got on great. We had little rows as everyone does but one thing about her: she took everything in if you talked to her and that was always a big part for me.

“With me, when she was riding in point-to-points, I was afraid of my life that she would get hurt as she was getting rides nobody else wanted. She would take on anything. Her bravery was something else.”

That bravery extended beyond the saddle because the likelihood was professionalism would be a failure and she would have to do something else. The vast, vast majority of jumps riders in Ireland scrounge around for the odd winner. It is dominated by a handful of big yards, owners and by extension jockeys. What she did is hard to fathom even now.

In that golden decade, Blackmore became both the first woman to win the Cheltenham Gold Cup and the first to win a Grand National in the 82-year history of the event. Yet when asked about it directly after the Grand National win in 2021, she said: “I don’t feel male or female right now; I don’t even feel human.”

She won the Aintree Grand National in 2021 on Minella Times, the Cheltenham Gold Cup on A Plus Tard in 2022, one of 18 victories at the Cheltenham Festival. Becoming the first woman to be leading jockey at Prestbury Park five years ago was something else. And, through it all, Rachael Blackmore remains a person who is hard to get a firm handle of.

She would often play down the fact she was a woman, because she wanted to be seen as a jockey rather than a female jockey, but it added enormously to her appeal to sponsors. Jockeys scramble for someone to augment their income; Blackmore was a sponsor’s dream, as she took on the men in a sport dominated by men and won, time and time again.

How good was she? Having won the Champion Chase at the 2024 Festival with Captain Guinness, Bob Olinger’s Stayers’ Hurdle win two months ago saw Blackmore complete success in the final championship event at Cheltenham, which hardly anyone achieves in racing.

Moreover, whereas she generally rode de Bromhead’s horses up with the pace, as was the way he liked, she had to kid Bob Olinger home from the back of the field, and it was probably as good a ride as she ever gave a horse. I never feel qualified to talk about how good or bad a jockey is but Rachael Blackmore was clearly very good and crucially she made precious few mistakes.

Nina Carberry never turned pro. She was unquestionably talented enough to do so, but she could at least use her name to embark on a political career with Fine Gael. Blackmore now must decide what to do next, and she will not be short of suitors.

I found her more difficult to interview than the average rider. She had an aura and there was something of the formidable. What I will mainly remember is seeing how many people would ask her to pose for a photo at the races or an autograph. It seemed never-ending; she never turned them down.

Racing has had no shortage of bad-news stories in recent years and a media, especially in Britain, rushing to knock it at any opportunity. Rachael Blackmore did more than anyone to give the other side of the story. And her legacy is evolving, as hardly any female rider has attempted to emulate her and go down the route she did, let alone achieve it.