Rachael Blackmore rode first winner as a professional jockey aboard Most Honourable at Clonmel on this day in 2015. Over a glittering 16-year career Blackmore was a pioneer who transformed racing.
Among the very best riders of her generation, Rachael Blackmore became the first female jockey to win the Aintree Grand National, the world’s most famous steeplechase, in 2021 when she rode Minella Times to victory. It came 44 years after Charlotte Brew became the first female jockey to ride in a race that had been run every year since 1839.
Blackmore had remarkable success at Cheltenham. She was the first female to win the Champion Hurdle (with Honeysuckle in 2021) and the Gold Cup (with A Plus Tard in 2022). In 2021, she was the leading rider at the Cheltenham Festival with six winners – more than the entire contingent of British jockeys combined. She finished her career with a remarkable 18 winners at the storied Cheltenham racecourse.
The daughter of a dairy farmer and a school teacher, sherode ponies as a child near her home in Killenaule. Blackmore gained a degree in equine science with hopes of becoming a vet but combined her studies with riding out and competing as an amateur. Her first winner came aboard Stowaway Pearl for John 'Shark' Hanlon at Thurles in 2011, and she turned professional four years later, with her first win as a professional coming in Clonmel in 2015. BBC sports journalist Frank Keogh said of her: “Instinct, timing,tactical awareness and strength all played a part in her story. But also the ability to bounce back from falls and injury, plus sheer hard graft.”
Blackmore’s achievements transcended racing. Victory in the Grand National, watched by an estimated 500 million people worldwide, made headlines around the globe, and she was voted the RTE Sports Personality of the Year in 2021 and the World Sport Star of the Year at the 2021 BBC Sports Personality awards.
Upon her retirement in May 2025, former jockey and Racing TV pundit Jane Mangan said of Blackmore: "We can only consider ourselves lucky to have witnessed her achievements in our lifetime. She didn't just break glass ceilings - she painted the whole damn sky."
Sources:
https://www.bbc.com/sport/horse-racing/articles/cy90jg14r8go
https://www.bbc.com/sport/horse-racing/articles/cqj7095zw0po
https://www.theirishfield.ie/racing/news/news-rachael-blackmore-announces-her-retirement-868060
