PARIS, France (AFP) — Rachael Blackmore’s groundbreaking exploits as a jockey have “inspired people to follow their dreams” Henry de Bromhead, the trainer with whom she teamed up to make history, told
AFP on Tuesday.

Blackmore caught people — including de Bromhead — by surprise announcing she was retiring with immediate effect on Monday.

The 35-year-old Irish sporting star would be best known to a global audience having become the first woman jockey to win the world’s greatest steeplechase, the Grand National, in 2021 on Minella Times.

She also retires as the only woman jockey to have won all four of the Cheltenham Festival’s major races.

She won two Champion Hurdles — on the race mare she adored Honeysuckle (2021/22) — the 2022 Cheltenham Gold Cup on A Plus Tard and the Queen Mother Champion Chase on Captain Guinness in 2024.

She completed the sweep with victory in this year’s Stayers Hurdle on Bob Ollinger.

For good measure Blackmore — who turned professional in 2015 — became in 2021 the first woman jockey to be crowned leading jockey at the festival with six winners, she rode 18 in all.

Blackmore, whose mother Eimir said she knew she was blessed with an adventurous spirit as even as a baby she climbed out of her cot regularly, always played down being a woman jockey.

De Bromhead agreed that her achievements were an inspiration to all and sundry.

“I do not think she likes to focus on that [being a woman],” he told AFP by phone.

“She has definitely inspired a lot of people to follow their dreams.

“That grit and determination can help you realise them whether you are male or female.”

De Bromhead said it was hard to quantify what they had achieved together since he brought her on board on a permanent basis in the 2018/19 campaign.

“Even if you read it now or watch replays it is pinch yourself stuff.

“When we both set out we never thought we would achieve all that.

“It is incredible,” said de Bromhead before adding with his trademark humility she was the rider, he was the front man as the trainer but there was a “massive team, a lot of cogs behind it [the success].”

‘All the attributes’

For de Bromhead the most memorable moment in their extraordinary journey together was not the Grand National — though he said her ride was “amazing” on Minella Times “she could see round corners that day” — nor the marquee races at Cheltenham.

It was Honeysuckle’s emotion-packed farewell win in the 2023 Mares’ Hurdle at the Festival.

It came months after de Bromhead’s 13-year-old son Jack died as a result of a fall from a horse.

“Honeysuckle’s win that day both for personal and professional reasons,” he said.

“It was massive for me and massive for her [Blackmore].”

De Bromhead, 52, said the reason he took her on was because he liked “her profile, she had come up the hard way and showed her determination”, that despite not enjoying immediate success she “had not stopped riding”.

He said Blackmore, who was known for riding out and then going to help her farmer father milk 100 cows, brought a lot to the table in the partnership.

“Her work ethic stood out and her attention to detail,” he said.

“She had natural ability, plus humility as she knew what it took to get to the top.

“She was also a really good reader of a race, she was fitter and stronger than anyone else, she had all the attributes.”

De Bromhead says he does not know her reasons for bowing out but “she would have thought everything through” and whilst it must have been tough as she “loved the game” she is going out “at the top”.

Some trainer/jockey relationships can be fraught and end on a sour note but not this one.

“She is a lovely lady,” said de Bromhead.

“She is a friend of ours, she is great to my family and we all adore her.”