Profile: Ireland’s new sporting hero Rachael Blackmore becomes racing's most prized possession

Rachael Blackmore collects the festival leading jockey trophy PIC David Davies/PA Wire for the Jockey Club

Michael Verney

March 19 2021 06:46 PM

RACING is usually all about pedigree, but jockey Rachael Blackmore has bucked that trend in sensational fashion yet again with the past four days at the Cheltenham Festival proving her crowning glory.

History is something which Blackmore has become accustomed to rewriting on a regular basis, but the Tipperary jockey sent her star into a different stratosphere when shattering record after record on racing’s grandest stage.

Victory aboard the wonder mare Honeysuckle on Tuesday made her the first female jockey to claim a Champion Hurdle and she ended the week as Leading Rider at the marquee jumps meeting.

To put her six winners for the week into perspective, only the great Ruby Walsh (7) has had more success in the same week at Cheltenham, as she surpassed Nina Carberry as the most successful female rider in Festival history.

For those who dip in and out of racing or only have the occasion flutter when Cheltenham rolls around every March, the 31-year-old's exploits may feel like groundbreaking news, but her success has quickly become the norm on home soil – despite unlikely beginnings.

Given that the Killenaule native had no racing heritage in her family, with her father a dairy farmer and her mother a primary school teacher, it seems an unusual field to venture into and there have been plenty of twists and turns along the way.

She spoke earlier this week about how a school tour to see three-time Champion Hurdle winner Istabraq inspired her as a youngster, but her rise to the pinnacle has certainly taken the scenic route.

She mixed college – sampling courses in UCD (Science), UL (Equine Science) and Griffith College (Business) – while still riding out in the mornings and competing as an amateur.

She secured her first winner on the track aboard Stowaway Pearl in 2011 for her first boss, John ‘Shark’ Hanlon.

Four barren years followed, though, before she took a calculated risk that helped propel her to superstardom.

No female jump jockey, not even trailblazers like Nina Carberry and Katie Walsh, had turned professional in Ireland since the mid-1980s but she took the plunge in 2015 to help open more doors under Hanlon's advice.

It was either that or call time on her riding career.

It was quietly thought to be a decision that would leave egg on her face, as nine stone was too light to be a jump jockey; while 26 was too late to make the move into the paid ranks with a paltry record of 11 point-to-point and seven track winners in eight years behind her.

Her risky decision was rewarded when crowned champion conditional jockey in the 2016/17 season as she developed a reputation as a fearless rider, with leading trainer Willie Mullins once remarking : “Rachael is a good jockey, she's not a lady jockey, she's a good jockey.”

Blackmore has always been a reluctant heroine who shies away from the headlines, but the spotlight has been thrust upon her since joining forces with Henry de Bromhead near the end of the 2017/18 jumps season and blowing all expectations out of the water.

The history maker continuously plays down her own talent when stating that she was lucky to “be in the right place at the right time", but she has provided inspiration to all that anything is possible.

Blackmore has never considered any of her many successes as any type of gender victory, but her role in paving the way for other people to achieve their dreams despite seemingly insurmountable odds cannot be underestimated.

“This was never even a dream. It was so far from what I thought could happen in my life. To be in Cheltenham riding the winner of the Champion Hurdle, it's just so far removed from anything that I thought could ever be possible,” she said earlier this week.

“So maybe there’s a lesson in that for everyone out there. To young people out there, male female or whatever, if you want to go and do something, go and do it because to me standing here right now shows literally anything can happen.”

When legends of the sport like Tony McCoy and Ruby Walsh are hailing her as the best jockey in the land, it must be true and it’s hard to quantify what positive spin her exploits over the past week will have on a generation of youngsters watching on at home.

Irish Independent racing columnist Patrick Mullins remarked yesterday that “it has become apparent that this is Rachael Blackmore’s world and we’re all living in it” but none of the fanfare will go to the teetotaller’s head.

She has never been one for hyperbole, and besides that, her next record is in sight as she chases her first Irish jockeys’ championship, with little time for rest as she partners four horses at Thurles tomorrow before making the sizeable spin to Downpatrick for another quartet on Sunday.

Blackmore, who is going out with fellow jockey Brian Hayes, has a whopping 84 winners already amassed on Irish soil this season while doing a job which she always feels “privileged” to undertake.

“It doesn't feel like a job so I feel very privileged to be doing something every day that I don't feel is work. I talk to some of my friends from college and they’re getting up and going to work every day and living for the weekend, I feel privileged to do a job that I enjoy so much,” she said a few years back.

Those who watched her in awe over the past week felt that same privilege as she laid claim not just to the title of racing’s first lady, but to the tag of racing’s most prized possession.