‘It will be a very different life to the one I had previously' - Rachael Blackmore on what awaits after retiring as a jockey
Blackmore joined a select crew of jockeys to have completed the championship set at the Cotswolds when guiding Bob Olinger to Stayers' Hurdle success two months ago, in what turned out to be her last Festival winner.
The 35-year-old exited the Gloucestershire track the next day for what would be her last time as a jockey having brought the curtain down on her glittering career last week.
"When I was leaving the weighing room at Cheltenham on Friday this year, for the first time I just had a little thought in my head, 'Will I be back here next season?'" Blackmore told Betfair in an exclusive interview.
"It was the first time that thought had ever crept into my head. I didn't know. Part of me thought I would be back, part of me thought I wouldn't.
"I just said to myself leave it [the decision] until June and get to the jockey's break. I'd think about it all then."
The Tipperary native, who became the first female jockey to land the Aintree Grand National aboard Minella Times in 2021, didn't even get to June with a winner aboard Ma Belle Etoile at Cork expediting her decision.
When you know, you know and Blackmore reckoned that the time to hang up her saddle had arrived.
"I was going to Cork the other day and I thought, 'If this one wins then maybe that's the time to call it'. She won and, the following morning, I fully decided that was it," she said.
Blackmore forged a bond with equine stars like Honeysuckle, A Plus Tard, Bob Olinger and Captain Guinness and her association with Henry de Bromhead brought her to racing's pinnacle.
"I love horses. They have given me the best days of my life and I have been so lucky to be involved with some of the best ones," the Killenaule native said.
"You can really want to ride a Cheltenham winner but you are not going to do it if you don't get on horses that are capable of doing that."
As for the next chapter, Blackmore has already penned a children's book but she will take time out before deciding what lies ahead.
"Even though retiring was probably a feeling inside me that I had kind of dampened down, it wasn't part of a massive plan to retire," she said.
"There is nothing set up but I am very lucky that I can take a few weeks and decide what might be next. It will be a very different life to the one I had previously."
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