Trailblazing jockey Blackmore retires from racing

Rachael Blackmore was given an honorary MBE in 2023, for services to UK sport

Grand National-winning jockey Rachael Blackmore has retired from racing with immediate effect.

In 2021, the Irishwoman became the first female jockey to win the world's most famous steeplechase, which was first run in 1839.

Blackmore won aboard the Henry de Bromhead-trained Minella Times in the colours of owner JP McManus.

"I feel the time is right. I'm sad but I'm also incredibly grateful for what my life has been for the past 16 years," Blackmore, 35, said.

"It is daunting, not being able to say that I am a jockey anymore. Who even am I now! But I feel so incredibly lucky to have had the career I've had."

Blackmore won the BBC's Sports Personality's World Sport Star of the Year for 2021 following her trailblazing victory at Aintree which came 44 years after Charlotte Brew became the first woman to ride in the National.

Prior to her Grand National triumph, Blackmore had already become the first female jockey to win the Champion Hurdle aboard Honeysuckle, that same year.

In 2022, she secured another first when steering A Plus Tard to win the Cheltenham Gold Cup - one of 18 festival winners she would ride at the Prestbury Park course.

"I just feel so lucky, to have been legged up on the horses I have, and to have experienced success I never even dreamt could be possible," she added.

"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."

The daughter of a dairy farmer and a school teacher, Blackmore rode ponies as a child near her home in Killenaule, County Tipperary.

Blackmore had once hoped to become a vet, gaining a degree in equine science and combining her studies with riding.

She rode her first winner as an amateur in February 2011 at Thurles before turning professional in 2015, but it was her success on Minella Times which secured her place in history.

"I don't feel male or female - I don't even feel human!" Blackmore said, immediately after her win by six-and-a-half lengths at Aintree four years ago.

Blackmore brought the curtain down by riding Ma Belle Etoile to victory at Cork last Saturday - the 575th winner of her 4,566-race career as a professional jockey.

Irish Taoiseach Micheal Martin led the tributes and called Blackmore "a sportsperson of a generation" who has "blazed a trail for others to follow".

Barry Geraghty said his fellow Grand National-winning jockey was "an ultra-talented horsewoman" who was one of "the most committed jockeys you could ever ride against".

Former jockey and Racing TV pundit Jane Mangan said: "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."

Frank Berry, racing manager for JP McManus who owned Grand National winner Minella Times, said Blackmore has had an "unbelievable career".

"She's done all things that everyone wants to do. Rachael won all the big races and she's retiring in one piece. I'm delighted for her,"

Irish trainer John 'Shark' Hanlon, who provided Blackmore with her first winner, Stowaway Peal, in 2011 said Blackmore was an "amazing woman".

"I'm delighted she went out on her own terms. She won't leave racing because she loves horses, like us all," he said.

Among the best of her generation - analysis

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.

Rachael Blackmore was a game changer who was among the best of her generation.

When she rode six winners to be leading jockey at the 2021 Cheltenham Festival, she may not have returned to grand fanfare at a meeting held behind closed doors because of Covid-19 restrictions, but the impact was still felt. Her tally was more than the entire British training contingent.

Before Blackmore, and fellow jockeys Lizzie Kelly and Bryony Frost, successes for female jockeys at Cheltenham were a rarity and largely came through amateur riders Katie Walsh and Nina Carberry.

With Walsh, Carberry and Kelly now retired and Frost moving to France after finding opportunities limited since winning a bullying case against fellow jockey Robbie Dunne, it will be interesting to see if other women can rise to the fore in jump racing.

Just two days ago, Hollie Doyle passed Hayley Turner's record for winners by a female jockey on the Flat, but Blackmore was only of only two professional women - the other being Isabel Williams - riding at this year's Cheltenham Festival.

Read the full analysis of Rachel Blackmore's career...