Leading Irish jumps jockey Rachael Blackmore has retired. The 35-year-old enjoyed major racing success with triumphs in the Grand National, the Gold Cup, Champion Hurdle and Champion Chase.
Jockey Rachael Blackmore has retired (Pic – Irish Racing on FB)
In March she completed the ‘grand slam’ of the Cheltenham Festival’s marquee events when Bob Olinger landed the Stayers’ Hurdle, and Blackmore decided to bring the curtain down on her career.
“My days of being a jockey have come to an end,” she wrote in a post on X. “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. 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.”
Blackmore, who spent three months on the sidelines towards the end of last year with a serious neck injury, departs the stage with a string of trailblazing firsts to her name.
She won each of the Cheltenham Festival’s feature races, famously executing one of the great Gold Cup rides of modern times to secure the sport’s pinnacle event in 2022 on A Plus Tard, who, like so many of her big winners, was trained by her most devoted ally Henry de Bromhead. He was among those she thanked on Monday.
“The people to thank are endless, it’s not possible to mention everyone, as I don’t want this to be another book, but I’m going to get a few names in here anyway and to everyone else, you know who you are, as they say,” Blackmore said.
“First, my parents who provided me with the best childhood, and a pony I couldn’t hold! This set the seed for a life of racing. Aidan Kennedy gave me my first ride in a point-to-point.”
“I rode my first winner for Shark Hanlon, who then helped me become champion conditional. I will be forever grateful to Shark for getting behind me, supporting me and believing in me when it would have been just as easy to look elsewhere. He was the catalyst for what was to come.”
“A conversation between Gigginstown House Stud’s Eddie O’Leary and Henry de Bromhead in a taxi on the way to Aintree took my career to a whole new level. Eddie got me in the door at Knockeen Stables, and what came next was unimaginable: Honeysuckle, A Plus Tard, Minella Indo, Captain Guinness, Bob Olinger, Minella Times, among many others . . . all with one thing in common – Henry de Bromhead. He’s a phenomenal trainer who brought out the best in me. Without Henry, my story is very different.”
In 2021, Blackmore secured an unprecedented landmark when beating all her male counterparts to be crowned leading rider at the Cheltenham Festival.
The following month, she rode the crest of a wave all the way to Aintree, claiming a heroic Grand National success on JP McManus’s De Bromhead-trained Minella Times that resonated all over the world. Last year’s Champion Chase victory on Captain Guinness meant she joined an elite group comprising just Ruby Walsh, Tony McCoy, and Barry Geraghty to have won jumping’s four most prestigious races, and this year’s Stayers’ on Bob Olinger was icing on the cake.
Rachael’s 17 victories aboard the star mare Honeysuckle, including their 2021 and 2022 Champion Hurdle triumphs, will never be forgotten. They looked like they were made for each other.
“I feel so incredibly lucky to have had the career I’ve had. 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.”
