Rachael Blackmore’s skilled driving profession stretched a bit of over 10 years. However she bows out leaving few big-race bins unticked.
Daughter of a dairy farmer and a faculty trainer, Blackmore grew to become an unintentional trailblazer as she racked up an ever-expanding checklist of firsts throughout what has been an distinctive time within the weighing room.
She needed to earn her personal leg-up on the horse racing circuit which has seen so many earlier than her minimize their enamel. However she additionally competed in different equestrian occasions and studied for a level in equine science on the College of Limerick, along with her mom, Eimir, encouraging her to pursue her research as she felt a full-time driving profession was unlikely.
Blackmore rode her first novice winner for John ‘Shark’ Hanlon at Thurles in February 2011, and it was he who inspired her to make the leap. He offered her with a primary skilled victory, too, at Clonmel on September 3, 2015.
By her personal admission, Blackmore was an “extremely average” novice and felt one of the best ways to alter her outlook was to show skilled in quest of extra rides and in flip extra success.
Her hardworking angle was duly rewarded when she was topped champion Irish conditional in 2017 – her first first – a yr which might show pivotal as having ridden frequently for Michael O’Leary’s Gigginstown Home Stud, his racing supervisor and brother, Eddie, advisable Blackmore to coach Henry de Bromhead whereas at the back of a taxi on the best way to Aintree.
And so one in every of racing’s most profitable partnerships was born.
The duo loved a plethora of big-race success collectively, however Blackmore’s headline victories will be distilled to a few horses to hail from the Knockeen yard – Honeysuckle, A Plus Tard and Minella Instances.
That isn’t to demean the likes of different Competition heroes such Captain Guinness, Bob Olinger, Envoi Allen, Quilixios et al or any of Blackmore’s different glories, it simply that individual trio has obliged on the very grandest of levels.
Her relationship with Honeysuckle spanned the primary of the mare’s 19 races to her final, with De Bromhead describing the duo as “a perfect storm” of Blackmore’s brilliance and Honeysuckle’s “deadly” expertise.
Their Champion Hurdle triumph in 2021 marked a breakthrough for a feminine rider in a Competition showpiece, although De Bromhead was fast to underline that Blackmore’s capability shouldn’t be considered in gender phrases – a sentiment echoed by the rider herself.
She mentioned on the time: “There’s no deal about it. If you want to be a jockey, you can be a jockey. Drive on.”
That was to change into her theme as she continued to smash down the boundaries, not least when reaching worldwide fame through Minella Instances’ Grand Nationwide victory, exclaiming: “I don’t feel male or female – I don’t even feel human! This is unbelievable.”
It maybe speaks volumes that by the point Blackmore received the Cheltenham Gold Cup aboard A Plus Tard the next yr, you needed to learn just a few paragraphs down within the racing part earlier than the very fact it was a primary win for a feminine rider was even talked about.
Blackmore was merely seen by these within the know as among the best within the weighing room, finish of dialogue.
The eye that went with famous person standing didn’t all the time sit effectively with Blackmore, who isn’t one to naturally put herself ahead, preferring to do her speaking on the monitor.
Her mom hailed her willpower and humility, including: “Despite the successes, Rachael remains true to herself. It’s no good having success if you aren’t a decent human being”.
Certainly, De Bromhead discovered Blackmore an enormous assist following the tragic demise of his 13-year-old son, Jack, in a pony racing accident in September 2022.
He mentioned: “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.”
There was hardly a dry eye in the home when Honeysuckle signed off her fairytale profession with Mares’ Hurdle success simply six months after the accident and Blackmore’s first thought was for Jack after crossing the road, on what was a vastly emotional day throughout.
Rachael Blackmore and Honeysuckle after Mares’ Hurdle victory in 2023
It could be honest to say Blackmore has change into a fan favorite, too, with no higher illustration than the assist that noticed her 2023 Grand Nationwide mount Ain’t That A Disgrace despatched off at simply 10-1 regardless of having solely received a average novices’ chase and his proprietor Brian Acheson declaring him to be “useless”.
An inspiration to loads of younger racing followers, whether or not she enjoys the tag or not, Blackmore bows out as a real sport changer.
