Rachael Blackmore has paid tribute to those who helped kick-start her career as she bids to follow up her Cheltenham Festival success by making yet more history next week at Aintree.
The 31 year old jockey rode an incredible six winners at the Festival supporting WellChild last month, a feat which has only ever been bettered by Ruby Walsh, who won seven times at jump racing’s ‘Olympics’ in both 2009 and 2016.
Now she is aiming to rewrite the history books again by becoming the first female jockey to win the Randox Grand National in its 182-year history.
Typically modest, Blackmore puts her success down to the support of others and a childhood in the countryside which gave her the opportunity to ride from a young age.
In the first part of a revealing interview with former jockey Katie Walsh for thejockeyclub.co.uk, she recalls: “I grew up on a farm in Tipperary. My dad was a dairy farmer and my mum was a teacher and we’ve always had ponies from when I was very small.
“It was great to have that, I was only chatting with my friend the other day. Her little girl is getting into horse riding and starting out, and I took it all for granted when I was younger.
“There were always ponies and it was just part of growing up. I suppose it’s a lot easier when you do grow up on a farm to be exposed to that and the three of us as kids were very lucky.
“I loved playing pony club games. I got into some eventing when I got a nicer horse in my teenage years and loved it all.”
Despite learning to ride at a young age, Blackmore admits she got a shock as a teenager when she was given the opportunity to spend time at one of the world’s most iconic racing yards.
She explains: “I started riding out for a neighbour in my transition year, so I was probably 15 or 16 and then I did a week at Ballydoyle as well, which was very cool.
“I was very unprepared from going riding out for the local small point-to-point trainer to go into Ballydoyle. It was a major shock and I don’t think I was ready for tacking up colts and stuff! But that was a great experience as well.
“Aged 14 or 15 I rode in a pony race on the pony I used to play pony club games on and I’d always wanted to try it or do it. I always wanted to just give it a go and ride in a point-to-point and see what it was like to ride in a race.”
For all the success Blackmore has now achieved, there were times when it seemed unlikely. Recalling her first experience of racing she laughs: “I was maybe 19 or 20 when I had my first ride in a point-to-point. I was third and I thought that I was pretty good and it was so easy!
“I didn’t ride the horse the next day and he went out and won. I don’t think I got into the placings for the rest of the season, so I quickly started to realise how hard it is to finish in the first three!”
Blackmore’s big break has been attributed to trainer John Hanlon, affectionately known in Irish racing circles as “The Shark”. However, it was a chance meeting with Grand National-winning jockey Davy Russell which made it all possible.
She says: “I was 21 and my first ride for Shark was at Thurles on Stowaway Pearl. I’d never met him before and I was riding out for Pat Doyle at the time. I was at college at Limerick at this stage and I was very good friends with Pat’s daughter so I’d ride out at the yard whenever I could.
“Davy Russell happened to be there a good bit at the time and there was a ladies’ race coming up and he said to me that if I ever needed a hand to give him a ring.
I was out hunting one day with Liz Lawlor and she had just come off to the phone to Shark who was asking her to ride in this ladies race, she couldn’t so told me to give Shark a ring. I rang him straight away and got the usual answer a trainer gives when an unknown person calls: “thanks, I’m fixed up”.
“I got onto Davy and asked if he could give him a ring, so he rang him and got the ride for me. That’s just the way it is, it’s all about the people you know and I was lucky to be able to ask someone whose opinion Shark trusted to get me on the horse.
“My first ride was my first winner on Stowaway Pearl – and I think you (Katie Walsh) were back in second!”
Blackmore continued to ride in point-to-points until she was 25 years old, notching up more than 170 rides before opting to turn conditional, a decision made harder by her desire to become champion female point-to-point rider.
She recalls: “That was something that crossed my mind when I had the option to turn. I was kind of thinking ‘I’ll never have the opportunity to be champion anything if I turn’.
“I thought that if I kept working at it there was a chance I could be champion lady (point-to-point) rider one day and it was an ambition that I had. I was weighing up the pros and cons of turning conditional and that was definitely something I thought about – but I didn’t expect to be champion conditional in 2016-17.
“I genuinely mean this, when I turned conditional my sole aim was to lose my 7lb claim, which was a massive achievement, especially as an amateur. There’s one race every day and it’s very difficult to do, so an amateur who can ride out their claim is phenomenal.
“I turned professional in 2015 on St Patrick’s Day and I just thought coming into a summer there was a man there telling me there was plenty of horses for me to ride, so I was better off on those than I was on a five year old maiden point-to-pointer.
“I just wanted to be riding, so it was a no-brainer for me and that’s something that so many jockeys don’t have – someone to get behind you.
“It took me from the time I turned (in March) to September to get a winner and people were often asking if I’d done the right thing, but it didn’t get to me at all because I was riding all the time.
“I was going racing every week. I’d only have one ride but I wouldn’t have had half the rides as an amateur. I kept getting put back up and people like that were just a massive help to me in the early days.
“I wasn’t getting stressed out that I hadn’t ridden a winner yet, because I knew how hard it is to get them from being amateur and how long you have to wait. But on the plus side I was riding and I had an HRI (Horse Racing Ireland) account with money in it, so I was happy.”
Blackmore still looks back on her achievements as a conditional as some of the most formative of her career and adds: “Being champion conditional still gets me and I was just so happy and still am about it.
“I never thought that would be something I could achieve. I remember Lucy Alexander was the first champion conditional in England, and I was just so in awe of her. I never thought that I’d be able to emulate her, so it was just massive.
“I do know in our sport that it’s not always about ability that can make people turn professional. I can’t say I was too worried about the female thing deep down myself, but Lucy was class.”
While Blackmore will never embrace the “female jockey” tag which inevitably accompanies her achievements, she also recognises the boost that narrative can give to youngsters hoping to follow in her footsteps.
And she admits: “I think having you (Katie Walsh) and Nina (Carberry) in the weighing room when I started out was great. You were a lot quicker to get going than me – you’re only three or four years older than me – but I was a lot slower to get going so you were extremely well established when I came into the weighing room.
“Coming into the weighing room when that was your attitude - I never heard you or Nina once talk about being women riding, there was never any talk of that, so you just carry on the example that’s before you.”
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