Rachael Blackmore is the most successful female jockey in the history of National Hunt racing and has established herself as the 'Queen of the Cotswolds' when it comes to the Cheltenham Festival.
She was leading rider at The Festival in 2021 and has won the Gold Cup, Champion Hurdle and Queen Mother Champion Chase amongst her tally of festival successes.
Age: 35 |
Height: 5ft 8" |
Wins: 575 |
Cheltenham Festival wins: 16 |
Total winnings: £9,843,910 |
Net worth: Unknown |
Rachael Blackmore is, without any doubt, the most famous female jockey that has ever graced the National Hunt game. Her exploits are ground-breaking and have helped ensure for her a place in racing folklore.
Blackmore grew up on a dairy farm in Killenaule, Co Tipperary and first started riding ponies at just two years of age. She achieved her first winner as an amateur rider in 2011 but didn't turn professional until 2015.
Trainer Shark Hanlon was a key figure in her decision to go pro and, fittingly, put her on to her first winner as a pro, Most Honourable, at Clonmel in September of that year.
It is her alliance with Waterford-based handler Henry de Bromhead, however, that has seen Blackmore achieve sporting superstardom.
Major wins at the Cheltenham Festival – including a Gold Cup, Queen Mother Champion Chase and two Champion Hurdles – sit proudly alongside the Grand National at Aintree in 2021. She is a pioneering figure for women in racing and, indeed, in sport.
In 2021, she was named the BBC World Sports Personality of the Year, whilst also winning the RTÉ Sports Person of the Year in Ireland.
Before she thought she could have a career in race riding, she worked to get a degree in equine science, the study of horses, and at the time she hoped that one day she would be a vet.
Blackmore is 5ft 8" tall.
The day that will surely stand out unmatched in Blackmore's career was Saturday 10th April, 2021 when she partnered Minella Times to win the Aintree Grand National for trainer de Bromhead and owner JP McManus.
Having been cancelled the year before due to the pandemic, the 2021 race and entire festival meeting took place behind closed doors for the first time in its history, but in the end it was Blackmore's success that will be recalled racing folklore after she became the first – and so far only - female rider to win since the races' inception in 1839.
The story of her win in the most famous steeplechase of them all made global headlines and catapulted Blackmore to stardom outside the normal confines of the racing bubble.
Blackmore also has 16 Cheltenham Festival winners on her CV, including a whopping six in 2021 when she was crowned leading rider at the meeting – the first female to achieve that feat.
She has managed to win three of the four crown jewels in the Cotswolds, the Gold Cup, Champion Hurdle and the Queen Mother Champion Chase – with only a Stayers' Hurdle missing.
Blackmore is most commonly associated with Henry de Bromhead, the Co Waterford handler with whom she has developed an enduring partnership.
She has enjoyed 15 Cheltenham Festival wins riding for the Knockeen supremo, including an emotional success with Honeysuckle in the 2023 Mares' Hurdle just months after the de Bromhead's suffered a family tragedy.
Shark Hanlon gave Blackmore her first winner at Thurles in 2011 and was instrumental in convincing her to turn professional four years later, while she also rode a Cheltenham Festival winner for Willie Mullins on Sir Gerhard in the Champion Bumper in 2021.
The horse most commonly associated with Blackmore's career is Honeysuckle, the outstanding mare on which she won the Champion Hurdle in 2021 and 2022. Their partnership was enduring and yielded major successes in Britain and Ireland across a long unbeaten spell.
At the 2023 Cheltenham Festival, they won a second Mares' Hurdle on what was Honeysuckle's final appearance, ensuring she was 4-4 at the Cotswolds showpiece in her career.
A Plus Tard was the horse on which Blackmore won the Gold Cup in 2021, while Envoi Allen was her partner for Ryanair Chase glory in 2023, and, of course, Minella Times carried her to that famous Grand National win at Aintree.
Minella Indo, Captain Guinness, Allaho, Bob Olinger, Sir Gerhard, Tellmesomethinggirl, Quilixios, and Monalee have also been key career successes for Blackmore.