Aintree is the place of legend.
Just walk through the gates and it hits you.
It only takes the first sight of the birch fences, carrying iconic names linked to the dramatic events of the past. Even those with only a passing interest in the sport know of Becher’s Brook and The Chair.
Red Rum and Tiger Roll broke out of the confines of the racing bubble to become household names with their exploits here.
Then there are the stories, Aldaniti’s return from a career-threatening injury and Bob Champion’s recovery from cancer before winning the 1981 renewal seemed the stuff of fiction, but somehow it wasn’t.
And in 2021 – behind closed doors, and when racing needed it – we got another. Rachael Blackmore became the first female jockey to ride the winner of the great race.
I remember watching from the stands as Geraldine Rees accomplished the feat of becoming the first female rider to complete the course on an exhausted Cheers in 1982. Even though Grittar was halfway back to the winners’ enclosure by the time they crossed the line, there was a rousing round of applause to mark the moment. It was novel.
There’s no novelty factor when it comes to Blackmore though, just one of the best riders of the current day performing at the very top of her game.
Blackmore lifts racing out of the gloom
We all owe her so much. Going into Cheltenham the sport was under siege, well-documented scandals off the track had led to national newspaper columnists publicly signalling the end of their association with racing. Even BHA chief executive Julie Harrington argued we faced an 'existential crisis' in a Racing Post interview.
Then Blackmore booted home six winners at Cheltenham, became leading rider at the meeting, and smiles were back on faces.
She hadn’t finished yet.
Her ride on Minella Times was as armchair as it gets around here. Like most great sporting teams, they found the perfect rhythm early and were never shaken from it.
As they turned for home, the pair led an Irish armada of five, all pointed towards the finish. By The Elbow the list of possible winners was down to one.
Success like this doesn’t happen by accident or overnight. There’s been no fast-track for Blackmore, she’s gained her experience at all the Irish tracks and crucially forged a key partnership with Henry de Bromhead.
It’s worth taking a step back at this point and looking at his achievements, too.
In the last three weeks, de Bromhead has saddled a one-two in the Gold Cup, a one-two in the Grand National; he's won the Champion Hurdle, and he's won the Champion Chase.
Yet still he's not the headline act.
The quiet, unassuming man that he is, he won’t mind it one bit even though in all likelihood he’ll never have another season like this.
Blackmore might.
She’s full of confidence at the moment and that helps, but it’s the inevitably of her being in the right spot on her horses. They’re given every chance whether it be in a Wexford maiden hurdle or a Randox Grand National. That’s the skill, the gift if you like. She’s long been delivering the results – and is now getting the plaudits.
She’s embarrassed by comments of her sex in moments of victory – and understandably so.
"I don’t feel male or female right now. I don’t even feel human. This is just unbelievable," she exclaimed shortly after the line.
No time for racing to stop
And it is. The journey from the early Corinthians such as Charlotte Brew to elite sportspeople like Rachael Blackmore has been gathering momentum for years now. And it hasn’t finished yet.
Racing, quite rightly at times, isn’t widely seen as a modern-thinking, forward-facing sport. But it can be.
How many other professional sports see men and women compete on equal terms?
Jenny Pitman and Venetia Williams broke the glass ceiling as trainers, now Rachael has smashed it as a jockey.
Hopefully there’s a generation watching on, inspired to try and follow in her footsteps. That has to be the hope now.
It was eerie at Aintree as she crossed the line. Hard as they tried, those fortunate enough to be in the stands at the behind-closed-doors National couldn’t produce an ovation to drown out her own roar of sheer jubilation.
Of course she deserved a crowd. She deserved the adulation that has followed every previous winner, roared back into the enclosure where masses assembled to get a view of the heroes of the hour.
But right there – in that moment, at the post – it didn’t matter. She expressed the sheer joy of winning a Grand National. She experienced it.
And the sport needed it. As if to offer a stark reminder of the challenges we still face the sad news came through shortly afterwards that The Long Mile had suffered a fatal injury while running loose after an early fall.
Thoughts go out to those closest to him. Triumph and tragedy have often gone hand in hand at Aintree but on an afternoon when Sir Anthony McCoy presented Rachael Blackmore with the winning rider’s trophy the overwhelming feeling was of elation.
It was a National to treasure.
