Author of a year 2021 in every respect exceptional, having become the first woman to win the Grand National of Liverpool as well as ten Gr.1 victories in one season, the Irish crack jockey Rachael Blackmore was also elected. International Sportswoman of the Year by the big English channel BBC, a trophy that immense sportsmen such as Mohammed Ali, Roger Federer and Usain Bolt have also received in the past.
Rachael Blackmore, the first female jockey in history, won the title of “International Sports Personality of the Year” by the major British channel BBC (© BBC)
Since 1967 and the coronation of the Australian pilot crack George Moore (year in which he notably won the 2,000 Guineas, the 1,000 Guineas, the Epsom Derby as well as the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Gr.1 level), no more jockey knew the privilege of being elected “Sports Personality international of the year “by the major English television group BBC. A 54-year gap that the Irishwoman has broken since this weekend Rachael Blackmore, author of an absolutely breathtaking year 2021 in jumps.
Australian George Moore, the last jockey to be voted “BBC World Sport Star of the Year” … in 1967! (© Pro Group Racing)
The young thirty-something, regularly associated with the residents ofHenry de Bromhead and Willie Mullins, two “masters” of steeplechase chasing from the Verte Erin, indeed distinguished herself by becoming the first woman jockey to win the legendary Grand National of Liverpool (Gr.3), associated with Minella Times, the Champion Hurdle (Gr.1) in the saddle on the exceptional Honeysuckle (unbeaten to date in thirteen official races), and to finish top of the jockeys list at the last Cheltenham festival where, in addition to the Champion Hurdle, she also managed to win five other races, including four Gr.1: the Ballymore Novices’ Hurdle with Bob Olinger, the Champion Bumper with Sir Gerhard, the Ryanair Chase with God and the Triumph Hurdle with Quilixios.
Rachael Blackmore and Minella Times, in their victory in the Liverpool Grand National this year (© PA WIRE)
Exceptional performance to say the least, which has therefore earned Rachael Blackmore, appearing in the Top 3 of the best jockeys of Ireland since the season 2018-2019, to become the first woman jockey, but also the first Irish, to receive this title of “BBC World Sport Star of the Year” at the costs, what is more, immense champions of their discipline like Novak Djokovic in tennis, Max Verstappen in Formula 1 or Tom Brady in American football. She thus succeeds to the list of this award to immense legends of the sport, such as footballers. Skin (1970) and Cristiano Ronaldo (2014) tennis players Novak Djokovic (2011), Rafael Nadal (2010) and Roger Federer, (2004 – 2006 – 2007 – 2017), boxers Mohammed Ali (1973 – 1974 – 1978) and Mike Tyson (1989), the sprinter Usain Bolt (2008 – 2009 – 2012), the rugby player Jonah Lomu (1995) and our Jacques Anquetil (1963) national in cycling. Just that !
Succeeding in the “BBC World Sport Star of the Year” prize list for someone like Usain Bolt, it is to say if Rachael Blackmore marked the history of racing and sport in 2021! (© News FR – 24)
However, nothing predestined this native of Killenaule, in County Tipperary, to embrace the career of … professional jockey. From the cross between a father, Charles, a dairy farmer and a mother, Eimir, teacher, Rachael Blackmore wanted, like his brother, a graphic designer, Jonathan, and her lawyer sister, Charlotte, to study. Her dyslexia having reduced her hopes of one day becoming a veterinarian, the young woman nevertheless managed to obtain a diploma in equine science, at the University of Limerick … without attending the traditional graduation ceremony. , because she wanted to race that day! Because although not from a “racing family”, Rachael Blackmore has always been passionate about and surrounded by horses and ponies, having learned the basics of classical riding alongside her father, before going very regularly to pony clubs, then going into pony races (facing some Paul Townend besides, another great jockey of obstacles in Ireland) and finally in the row of amateurs, in Point-to-Point, as in official races.
A very young Rachael Blackmore, already very comfortable on a fiery wooden steed (© RSVP Live)
Despite a mixed start to say the least, with “only” 18 victories for more than 200 mounts in eight years as a rider, Rachael Blackmore wished to make his passion his profession, becoming professional from 2015, at the canonical age of 26 (!), on the recommendation of one of his first mentors, John “Shark” Hanlon. Unparalleled worker with flawless self-sacrifice, the young woman has never ceased since her first “pro” victory in the saddle on Most Honourable, in Clonmel, in September 2015, to make headlines, becoming the first woman jockey in Ireland to win the “Conditional Riders’ Championship” (the equivalent of the Étrier d’Or in France), in 2017, that is to say two years before winning his first Gr.1, in the saddle on one of his favorite horses, Minella Indo, in the Albert Bartlett Novices’ Hurdle of Cheltenham … before 19 more came to support his hunting chart to date!
Rachael Blackmore, in the saddle on the champion Honeysuckle, with whom she won no less than four Gr.1 this year, including the Champion Mare Hurdle of Cheltenham (© The Journal)
A most remarkable rise therefore for a “self made jockey” who has become, like Nina Carberry, Katie Walsh, Holly Doyle or Bryony Frost, a real idol for young women also wishing to embrace the career of jockey, and who amply deserves everything that happens to him today, given the efforts made to interfere at the highest level. “A woman who knew how to break the codes in force“says his locker room colleague but above all a great friend – and even roommate! – Patrick Mullins (Willie Mullins’ son) in the Irish press, “despite the fact that many considered her too light, too old, too bad, too educated and too feminine when it came to turning professional“. Like what, everyone can be wrong!
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