Rachael Blackmore

At the time of writing, Rachael Blackmore has only recently returned to the saddle, having recovered from a neck injury sustained in a fall at Downpatrick on September 20, 2024. Blackmore, 35, will always be best remembered as the first female jockey to win the Grand National, which she did on Minella Times, trained by Henry de Bromhead, in 2021, but has already rewritten the racing history books more than once in her pioneering career.

Born on July 11, 1989 in Killenaule, County Tipperary, Blackmore rode her first winner as a professional, Most Honourable, trained by John Joseph Hanlon, in handicap hurdle at Clonmel on September 3, 2015 and in the decade since has rarely looked back. In 2016/17, she became the first woman to win the Irish conditional jockeys’ title and rode out her claim on Sweet Home Chicago, trained by Colin Bowe, in a maiden hurdle at Wexford on June 21, 2017.

At the Cheltenham Festival, Blackmore rode her first winner, A Plus Tard, in the Centenary Novices’ Handicap Chase in 2019 and has since increased her career tally to 16 wins, notably including the Champion Hurdle, twice, on Honeysuckle (2021, 2022), the Cheltenham Gold Cup on A Plus Tard (2022) and the Queen Mother Champion Chase on Captain Guinness (2024).

Thus, she became the first woman to win each of those ‘feature’ races and, in 2021, when she rode a total of six winners, the first woman to win the leading jockey award at the Cheltenham Festival. The Stayers’ Hurdle is the notable omission from her CV, but she has also won the Ryanair Chase twice, on Allaho (2021) and Envoi Allen (2023). Remarkably, Blackmore is already sits in eleventh place on the all-time list at the Festival and, of jockeys still riding, only compatriot Paul Townend, with 34 winners, has achieved more success at the March showpiece meeting.