Classy gesture that sums up reluctant superstar Rachael Blackmore

Irish Daily Mirror

13-05-2025

AINTREE is where it really began for Rachael Blackmore and Aintree is where she made history.
Seven years ago Eddie O'Leary was sharing a cab to the track with Henry de Bromhead when the subject of jockey bookings came up.
O'Leary recommended the young Tipp jockey to De Bromhead. The rest is racing history...
'My first ride for (De Bromhead) was a Gigginstown horse called Gangster at Kilbeggan in 2018,' Blackmore told me at the Liverpool track in 2022.
'I think I finished about fifth and I remember ringing him after and I just remember thinking, 'That didn't go well'… I knew by him on the phone he wasn't overly impressed at my efforts on the horse.
'But thankfully I rode a few more for him and then things started to get going. My first winner for him was Balzac Turgot at Ballinrobe in 2018 and that was the start of it.'
From that point on there was no stopping Blackmore.
A Gold Cup, two Champion Hurdles, a host of Grade Ones and most famously a historic Grand National win on Minella Times in 2021.
She became the first woman ever to win the world's most famous jumps race, but was not going to be defined by gender.
'I don't feel male or female — I don't even feel human!' she said after winning the great race.
The enormity of that Grand National success took a bit of getting used to.
'There's definitely a massive global reach that the Grand National has and I really felt that,' she said.
'The Grand National seems to reach different parts of the world that no other races do.'
With the win came new-found fame.
'Going to a random clothes shop in Dublin and you're dressed in your normal clothes and someone comes up to you… That's something that didn't happen before,' she said.
Blackmore originally wanted to be a vet. She ended up one of most successful big-race jockeys the sport has ever known.
Shark Hanlon played a key role in her career, giving Blackmore her first winners as an amateur and professional. But she will forever be remembered for her partnership with De Bromhead.
Winning at Aintree for him on Minella Times elevated her to become one of the most recognisable faces in Irish sport. And she had the fan mail to prove it too.
'A lot of times I know the teacher in school is after setting out an assignment of 'Write to someone you admire' because I get a bundle of letters from the same school!' she said.
'It's great that it's sparking an interest in kids.'
In the saddle, Blackmore was clinical with a brilliant race riding mind. She was the jockey for the big occasion and tough too, never founding wanting in a finish and able to roll with the punches.
Just the second woman to turn professional in Ireland, she was crowned champion Irish conditional in 2017.
In a glittering career, she won two Champion Hurdles on board Honeysuckle and landed the Gold Cup on A Plus Tard in 2022.
She took the leading rider prize at the 2021 Cheltenham Festival and completed the grand slam of championship races there when taking the 2024 Champion Chase on Captain Guinness and Stayers' Hurdle on Bob Olinger this year.
Those big successes all came on horses for De Bromhead and he was always quick to credit the jockey for the stable's success.
'It's not just me, it's a huge team effort. My wife Heather is hugely involved, I wouldn't have been able to achieve anything of that on my own and Rachael's incredible,' he said.
It was a school tour to see Istabraq that gave Blackmore the bug and she showed promise over jumps from the very start.
There's a famous video clip of her winning a 2004 pony race as a 15-year-old, beating another young hopeful named Paul Townend.
Hotel Minella owner John Nallen is a family friend and he watched her progress from an early age.
'You could see what she had from early on. You could always see she was serious about horses jumping,' he said.
It was Nallen who sold Minella Times to JP McManus.
That made her National victory all the more special for him and a joyous clip of Nallen cheering her home on Minella Times went viral at the time.
'Fairytale stuff,' he said.
Soon afterwards Blackmore came down to visit Nallen and went riding with his son Jack, who has special needs.
'Rachael gave him her goggles and he was over the moon with the goggles,' said Nallen.
It was another typically understated touch of class from the reluctant superstar.
When Davy Russell suffered a very worrying fall at Limerick in 2020, it was Blackmore who found a phone to ring the jockey's wife Edelle and tell her he was okay.
De Bromhead also credited her support following the tragic death of his 13-year-old son Jack in a pony racing accident in 2022.
'To see her around when we had our tragedy, around the children and with their friends and all of us — she's an incredible person apart from being a brilliant jockey,' said De Bromhead.
Blackmore shared many great days with De Bromhead. Days that will never be forgotten.
Wins on Honeysuckle, Minella Indo, Minella Times and A Plus Tard lit up the track and captured the attention of those outside racing's bubble.
Jump racing is an unforgiving sport and Blackmore had her fair share of it.
A spill at Killarney in 2021 ruled her out for three months with a hip injury and last season she needed a neck brace after a fall at Downpatrick.
On Saturday she signed off with a victory at Cork on board Ma Belle Etoile. Fittingly it was for De Bromhead.
Yesterday, she called time on her career at the age of 35 with her legacy secure as a trailblazer who reached the very pinnacle of the sport.
'I feel the time is right. I'm sad but I'm also incredibly grateful for what my life has been for the past 16 years,' she said.
'I just feel so lucky, to have been legged up on the horses I have, and to have experienced success I never even dreamt could be possible.'
Now she's looking to a future away from the saddle.
'It is daunting, not being able to say that I am a jockey anymore... who even am I now! But I feel so incredibly lucky to have had the career I've had,' she said.
'To have been in the right place at the right time with the right people, and to have gotten on the right horses — because it doesn't matter how good you are without them.
'They have given me the best days of my life and to them I am most grateful.'