Rachael Blackmore, the first woman to ride the winner of the Grand National, is bidding to join some greats who have won the BBC's World Sport Star title.
Sir Anthony McCoy racked up 4,358 winners during his record-breaking career which also brought him 20 consecutive champion jockey titles. But just one of those thousands of winners arguably counted for more than all the rest put together when it came to raising McCoy’s profile beyond the confines of racing. It was no coincidence that another of his accolades, BBC Sports Personality of the Year, came at the end of 2010, the year in which he won the Grand National for the only time in his career on board Don’t Push It.
Rachael Blackmore is also hoping to pick up a trophy at this year’s Sports Personality of the Year awards on the back of a magnificent season that included a Grand National victory. Unlike McCoy, who was eligible for the main award by virtue of being based in Britain, Irish-based Blackmore is odds on for what is actually the more impressive sounding World Sport Star of the Year accolade. Formerly the Overseas Sports Personality of the Year award, it has been won in the past by sporting greats such as Pele, Muhammad Ali, Tiger Woods, Roger Federer and Usain Bolt.
If few outside of racing were unaware of Blackmore’s rapid rise to the top of her profession, all that changed at Aintree in April when she made front-page news by becoming the first woman to ride the winner of the Grand National. Though as she remarked in the aftermath of passing the post first on Minella Times, ‘I don’t feel male or female right now. I don’t even feel human.’
The significance of Blackmore’s achievement of winning the Grand National needs putting into context. No woman had ridden in the Grand National until Charlotte Brew in 1977 and even now many more women have been into space than have ridden in a Grand National! Blackmore is one of only 18 women ever to have had a ride in the race, many of whom have partnered horses with little realistic chance of winning.
McCoy had 14 unsuccessful attempts in the Grand National before finally winning it whereas Minella Times was only Blackmore’s third ride in the race. That historic victory came just over ten years after her first success under Rules when Stowaway Pearl won a handicap hurdle at Thurles for lady riders. That was one of only seven successes for Blackmore when riding as an amateur (she rode another 11 winners in points), something she combined with her university studies with the aim of becoming a vet. However, it was race riding that was to become her profession as she became only the second Irish female jump jockey to join the paid ranks in 2015.
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Blackmore’s career once turning professional developed rapidly in the seasons that followed, starting with another ‘first’, that of becoming the first female jockey to become champion Irish conditional in the 2016/17 season. She was still claiming 3 lb when landing her first big-race success, on Abolitionist in the 2017 Leinster National for Ellmarie Holden in March 2017, and rode out her claim in June of that year.
The biggest boost to Blackmore’s career undoubtedly came following her link-up with Minella Times’ trainer Henry de Bromhead, Ireland’s most progressive jumping yard in recent seasons. With a total of 90 winners in 2018/19, Blackmore found herself challenging for the Irish jockeys’ title before finishing runner-up to Paul Townend and she set a new career-best seasonal total (92) in Ireland when runner-up to Townend again in 2020/21.
It was De Bromhead’s stable which provided Blackmore with her first two winners at the Cheltenham Festival in 2019. A Plus Tard won the Close Brothers Novices’ Handicap Chase before going on to even bigger successes with Blackmore in the saddle, most recently in last month’s Betfair Chase at Haydock. Her other Cheltenham winner in 2019 was Minella Indo in the Albert Bartlett Novices’ Hurdle just 24 hours after Bryony Frost on Frodon in the Ryanair Chase had narrowly beaten Blackmore to the honour of becoming the first female jockey to win a Grade 1 over jumps at the Festival.
🏆🙌 The moment Rachael Blackmore made history on Honeysuckle in the Champion Hurdle!
— Sporting Life Racing (@SportingLife) March 16, 2021
Breathtaking!pic.twitter.com/CEJdBP4sLK
Minella Indo and A Plus Tard returned to Cheltenham to give De Bromhead a one-two in the latest Gold Cup when Blackmore opted to ride the eventual runner-up. But that took little gloss off a week when Blackmore had taken the Festival by storm with six wins, making her the first female jockey to be leading rider at the meeting. Five of those six wins came at Grade 1 level, including on Bob Olinger (Ballymore Novices’ Hurdle), Sir Gerhard (Champion Bumper), Allaho (Ryanair Chase) and Quilixios (Triumph Hurdle). But the highlight was when making more history to win the Champion Hurdle on Honeysuckle. Blackmore’s unbeaten partnership with Honeysuckle now extends to 13 races after the pair won the Hatton’s Grace Hurdle at Fairyhouse last month for the third time.
Perhaps the final word on the rider of Honeysuckle, A Plus Tard and Minella Times should go to the man who trains them. ‘I’m delighted for her’ says De Bromhead. ‘She’s such a good rider, an ultimate professional and deserves everything she gets.’ That could soon include a trophy with some very famous names on it.
