Latest news with #SharkHanlon
Irish Times
17-05-2025
- Sport
- Irish Times
Hewick aiming to make it third time lucky in French Champion Hurdle
The remarkable Hewick will try to make it third time lucky in Saturday's French Champion Hurdle at Auteuil. Runner-up to Losange Bleu in last year's Grande Course De Haies d'Auteuil, and fourth in the race in 2023, Hewick is back for another crack at the €390,000 feature, which is off at 3.25 Irish time and live on Sky. Even by the unlikely standards already achieved by 'Shark' Hanlon's €850 bargain buy during his career, victory in France's biggest hurdles contest might constitute a peak. He is the sole Irish contender in an eight-runner contest where local star Losange Bleu is favourite to defend his title. Benie Des Dieux was Ireland's last winner six years ago. READ MORE Also lining up is the Paul Nicholls-trained Monmiral, last year's Cheltenham Festival winner, who is part-owned by Alex Ferguson and has been supplemented into the race. Nicholls won the 'Grande Course' in 2016 with Ptit Zig. Cork-born jockey Gavin Sheehan is again on board Hewick, having guided him into eighth in last month's Grand National at Aintree. Sheehan's only other spin on the hugely popular veteran was when successful in the 2023 King George at Kempton. 'He's a wonderful horse. I said if he won the Grand National, they probably would have made a movie out of him!' Sheehan said. 'Having had that run last year and that experience will help. It's different racing over there, a different style. I've rode in it before and it's a straightforward track. The only difference is they have a hurdle on a bend. The drier the ground the better for him as well,' he added. Bookmakers rate Hewick a general 11/4 second favourite to challenge the odds-on Losange Bleu. Sunday's €900,000 highlight at Auteuil is the Grand Steeple-Chase De Paris, off at 3.05. There will be no Grade One jumps action in Ireland for more than five months, but the relentless National Hunt circus rolls into Wexford on Saturday. In the wake of Rachael Blackmore's retirement earlier this week, Darragh O'Keeffe continues to be busy picking up the bulk of rides for Henry De Bromhead, and Aspire Tower looks the one to beat in the novice chase. The last of O'Keeffe's six rides at Wexford is Pebble Bleu in the handicap chase, where the course hurdles winner Kiln Time has just a second start over fences. Inexperience is an obvious concern but a mark of 81 over fences looks exploitable for Harry Kelly's runner.
The Sun
12-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Sun
Trailblazing Rachael Blackmore smashed through racing's glass ceiling and opened doors for a whole new generation
HISTORY maker Rachael Blackmore has retired from riding having won it all and transformed the sport. Jump racing 's queen won every big race imaginable, including her groundbreaking Grand National win on Minella Times in 2021. 2 2 She became the first woman to win Aintree's famous race and smashed the glass ceiling several times over during her brilliant 16-year career. There have been women riding over jumps for nearly 50 years, with Val Greaves the first ever to ride a National Hunt winner in 1978. But the vast majority found it impossible to break through to a high level in the incredibly macho, male-dominated world of jumps racing. Wonder woman Blackmore, 35, not only proved she was good enough - and tough enough - to compete against men, but her rare talent took her to the very pinnacle of the sport. And she opened the door for a new generation of female jumps jockeys, who might otherwise have found it too daunting to try and make a career in one of the world's most dangerous sports. When she rode her first winner on Stoaway Pearl at a lowly midweek meeting at Thurles in February 2011, it lit the touch paper on a legendary career in the saddle. Very few trainers wanted to use her at the beginning and she rode just 12 winners between 2010 and 2016. But Shark Hanlon spotted some potential and he helped her get her foot on the ladder before she eventually caught the eye of top trainer Henry De Bromhead in 2018. It was a game changer for Blackmore, and she quickly discovered the brilliant mare Honeysuckle, who she rode to back-to-back Champion Hurdle wins at the Cheltenham Festival. She also won the Cheltenham Gold Cup on A Plus Tard and, in winning the Champion Chase and Stayers' Hurdle, she joined an elite group of jockeys to sweep the Festival's "big four" races, a feat even 20-time champion jockey AP McCoy couldn't manage. 'Fantastic time' - Rachael Blackmore & Paul Townend share backstage sneak peek of Late Late Show experience Blackmore said: 'A conversation between [owner] Eddie O'Leary and Henry de Bromhead in a taxi on the way to Aintree took my career to a whole new level. 'Eddie got me in the door at the stable, and what came next was unimaginable. Honeysuckle, A Plus Tard, Minella Times, among many others. 'All with one thing in common – Henry de Bromhead. He's a phenomenal trainer, who brought out the best in me. Without Henry, my story is very different.' But it was her historic win in the Grand National in 2021 aboard Minella Times that propelled her into the pantheon of sporting greats. Until that point, the closest a woman had come to winning the big one was in the movie National Velvet, when Elizabeth Taylor disguised herself as a man and stormed home in front. The only regret around that magical day is there was nobody at Aintree to cheer her home, with the meeting held behind closed doors during Covid. Life-changing win It was a life-changing win and she soon found herself being stopped for autographs and selfies in the street. She once received fan mail from a young girl in the UK who simply addressed the letter to: "Rachael Blackmore, Ireland." Her success wasn't just limited to the track, as she was crowned BBC World Sports of the Year and was named RTE's Sports Person of the Year in 2021. She suffered a serious neck injury after a fall at Downpatrick in September last year, and when she returned in December she struggled for form. She still ended up having a stellar season, riding 35 winners and banking over £1.2million in prize money, and her last winner came on Ma Belle Etoile at Cork on Saturday. Blackmore said: 'There are so many people to thank, too many to mention. I feel so incredibly lucky to have had the career I've had. '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.' Whatever the future holds for Blackmore, she will go down as one of the modern greats and, even more importantly, she has changed the sport for the better.
Irish Times
12-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Times
Rachael Blackmore's retirement marks the exit of one of our finest sportspeople
'It is daunting, not being able to say that I am a jockey any more ... who even am I now,' asked Rachael Blackmore in her retirement statement on Monday afternoon, one that was a bolt from the blue for most of us. Well, who Rachael Blackmore is, and always will be, is one of this country's finest ever sportspeople. One who gave us the most magical of memories, at Cheltenham , Aintree and beyond, her humility and thoughtfulness in the immediate aftermath of her greatest triumphs adding to her charm. From Shark Hanlon to Henry De Bromhead , to her Mam and Dad, she was always quick to deflect her successes on to those who had helped her along the way, waving off the plaudits like they mortified her. [ Groundbreaking jockey Rachael Blackmore bows out on her own terms Opens in new window ] Sports' mightiest victors can often have egos the size of Kilimanjaro, but no harm in that. Although Blackmore's reluctance to proclaim herself as half decent at her jockeying job made us warm to her even more. READ MORE Remember April 2020? ITV brought us a virtual Aintree Grand National after the actual race was postponed due to Covid-19. It was a surreal spell for all of us, our sporting world descending into a computer game. No one was more confused that year than the winner, Potters Corner, who triumphed at Aintree despite never leaving his Welsh yard. The following year was no less bewildering, the crowds stayed away from Aintree, the race taking place under the eeriest of circumstances. We were in desperate need of a sprinkling of joy, Blackmore providing it when she rode Minella Times to victory. 'I don't feel male or female right now, I don't even feel human, it's just unbelievable,' she said after becoming the first woman to win the race, Blackmore never comfortable with that 'pioneering female' tag. And that's the thing – she wasn't a great woman jockey, she was just a great jockey, her unwillingness to have her career framed in gender terms admirable. Still, though, she left glass ceilings in smithereens. In 2021, she won our Sportswoman of the Year award, but she was at a loss to understand how Kellie Harrington, Leona Maguire or Katie Taylor hadn't pipped her to the gong. Rachael Blackmore simply didn't understand how great she was. [ Rachael Blackmore named Irish Times/Sport Ireland Sportswoman of the Year 2021 Opens in new window ] She was a delight to chat to, always kind, co-operative and lovely, the warmth of her tribute to fellow jockey Michael O'Sullivan, who died in February after a fall at Thurles, on the Late Late Show a measure of her humanity. She'll hate this gender battle but she's in the running, along with Sonia O'Sullivan and Katie Taylor, for the title of our greatest sportswoman. Mind you, she'd get a mention or two in the battle for, well, the non-gendered contest for the greatest of them all. Go well, Rachael Blackmore, thanks for the memories. Know who you are. One of Irish sport's very finest.
South Wales Argus
06-05-2025
- Sport
- South Wales Argus
Hewick on course for another French Champion Hurdle bid
Shark Hanlon's 2023 King George winner finished second to Losange Bleu 12 months ago and the pair are on course to meet again on May 17. Should he run well, then Hanlon will give serious consideration to another crack at America's Grand National Hurdle Stakes, which he won in 2022. 'We are definitely going to France. He is in great form,' said Hanlon, who also saddled Hewick to finish fourth behind Theleme at Auteuil in 2023. 'After France, he will get his break and we'll make a decision – I'd love to go back to America. I'll have talks with the owners and see what they want to do. 'There are a few good pots around this year too, so we will wait and see. 'We have no decision on who is going to ride him yet, we will sit down and talk about it.' With regards the Auteuil feature, Willie Mullins has entered Il Etait Temps, who returned to action with a sensational win at Sandown on the last day of the season, while Joseph O'Brien could run Home By The Lee.
