The Queen and King of Aintree
Co-written with Myles McDevitt
The glass ceiling has well and truly been broken. A Hollywood fantasy turned into reality on Saturday when Rachael Blackmore became the first female jockey to win the Aintree Grand National, breaking down one of the most significant gender barriers in sport.
The 31-year-old Tipperary woman rode the Henry de Bromhead trained Minella Times to victory at odds of 11/1 in the 173rd edition of the worlds most famous steeplechase.
“I don’t feel male or female right now. I don’t even feel human,” said the ever-humble Blackmore. “This is unbelievable.”
Unbelievable because Blackmore was just the 20th female jockey to compete in a race that has been a British and Irish sporting institution since 1839.
In 1977, the legendary trainer of three-time National winner Red Rum, Ginger McCain said the Grand National was no place for woman. That very year Charlotte Brew became the first female rider to compete in the race. Her mount Barony Fort pulled up four fences from home; Red Rum raced into immortality and Brew faded into obscurity.
Five years later Charlotte Rees became the first female jockey to complete the National course followed by Caroline Beasley breaking new ground as the first woman to win over the National fences aboard Eliogarty in the 1986 Foxhunter Chase.
Carrie Ford made further inroads in 2005, finishing fifth on Forest Gunner, and in 2012 Katie Walsh was the first female rider to be placed in the National on board her father Ted Walsh’s Seabass. In a special piece broadcast by ITV Racing on Saturday, Walsh spoke of the history of female jockeys in an event that was the domain of men for too many years.
She also mentioned a 1944 Hollywood movie ‘National Velvet,’ where the main protagonist, a 12-year-old girl named Velvet Brown, played by Elizabeth Taylor, wins the Grand National on The Pie. A gelding she won in a raffle and one she decided to train and eventually ride in the Aintree spectacular.
For all the girls who watched National Velvet!Thank you @rachaelblackmor we’re so lucky to have you 🤩 https://t.co/oXp4DNMK9z
— Hayley Turner (@Hayleyturner123) April 10, 2021
The likes of Rees, Beasley, Walsh – even multiple Cheltenham Festival winning jockey Nina Carberry and maiden Grade One-winning female rider Lizzie Kelly paved the way. Now…everybody knows the name Rachael Blackmore.
When ITV host Ed Chamberlin put it to her that he had lost count of the number of kids who told him they wanted to grow up to be her, Blackmore replied in her own unique way:
“I just can’t believe I’m Rachael Blackmore…I hope it helps anyone who does want to be a jockey.”
The Rachael Blackmore of 2021 is a far cry from the Blackmore of 2011. Not in person, but in prestige. She has somehow managed to stay humble as her world has been turned upside down.
Rewind a decade and she had just rode her first winner under rules on Stowaway Pearl for trainer ‘Shark’ Hanlon. When turning professional in March 2015, she had only seven winners to her name and 11 in point-to-points. She said at the time she had nothing to lose. It turns out she had everything to gain.
In the film ‘National Velvet,’ Velvet Brown famously said: “I want it all quickly ‘cause I don’t want God to stop and think and wonder if I’m getting more than my share.”
In the past month, the Killenaule native has reached heights that some jockeys wouldn’t reach in a lifetime: first female to win a championship race at the festival, first female to place in a Gold Cup; first female to be crowned leading jockey at the Cheltenham Festival, and now the first woman to win the Grand National.
Knowing Blackmore, she will hate to read a list of her achievements because it has never been about gender. It has been about being good enough and she is more than good enough. Beneath the modesty of her current superstardom is a tenacious will to win. Years of hard work and dedication to become the best at what she does.
The daughter of a dairy farmer and a teacher, who grew up on a farm riding ponies, Blackmore may not be done just yet. She currently trails Paul Townend by just 10 in the Irish Jockeys Championship with three weeks remaining to the season ending Punchestown Festival.
It takes a certain type of fearless individual to rewrite the textbook on a sport and Rachael Blackmore has just done that. And she has achieved thus in the most endearing and humble way possible.
We salute you.
The trainer that is King
Whilst Blackmore can lay claim to being the queen of racing, trainer Henry De Bromhead has announced himself in no uncertain terms as it’s king.
De Bromhead’s achievements in this past month are nothing short of remarkable in racing terms. To think that the Waterford-native trained his first Cheltenham Festival winner almost 10 years ago; it is hard to for him let alone anyone to comprehend what has happened in the past month.
At Cheltenham he was superior. It started on the Tuesday with the mare Honeysuckle and Blackmore pulling clear of their rivals in breathtaking fashion in the Champion Hurdle. Honeysuckle now 11 wins from 11 over hurdles, all down to the expert training of De Bromhead and his staff. Part one of the Cheltenham holy trinity was complete.
Wednesday started brightly with Bob Olinger in the Ballymore Novices Hurdle. The feature race, the Queen Mother Champion Chase, threw up a classic with another mare Put the Kettle On maintaining her unbeaten record at Cheltenham under jockey Aidan Coleman.
However, every trainer’s dream is to win the blue riband of steeplechasing: The Cheltenham Gold Cup. To have the winner is one thing but to have a one-two finish is nothing short of extraordinary. It was Minella Indo who came home in front for Jack Kennedy ahead of A Plus Tard under Blackmore.
Cheltenham’s holy trinity was complete. He had done something no other trainer had ever done before. All eyes then turned to Aintree to see if he could pick up where he left off.
And Minella Times delivered in tremendous style winning the greatest race of them all with stablemate and 2018 Ryanair Chase winner, Balko Des Flos coming second.
De Bromhead’s one-two finish in the Grand National was the first for 113 years after Fred Whitington saddled Rubio and Mattie McGregor in 1908.
When owners, The Potts family, decided to part ways with De Bromhead in 2016, it was a massive blow given the success that he had in training winners like Sizing Europe and future Gold Cup winner Sizing John. The aforementioned in particular being the first horse to give the Irish trainer a taste of Grade One success in the 2008 Irish Champion Hurdle.
Now five years later, the County Waterford trainer can lay claim to the two biggest prizes in National Hunt racing and a one-two finish in both.
One of the main plaudits that De Bromhead has received, is the way that he schools his horses at his base in Knockeen, Co. Waterford. His previous Champion Chase winner Special Tiara and Sizing Euope had a superb jumping ability, the same can be said for Minella Times who was beautiful over the fences on Saturday with a particularly breathtaking leap at the biggest fence on the course, The Chair.
De Bromhead is third in both trainers Championship in Britain and Ireland. He has only saddled 36 runners in this country but with multiple victories in the biggest races on these shores he has even overtaken Nicky Henderson in the trainers Championship.
Whilst on Irish shores, there has been an ongoing battle in recent years between Willie Mullins and Gordon Elliott. But with the latter’s ban from the sport and a failure to overhaul the team at Closutton, De Bromhead may now have the firepower to overtake both; especially with several Cheveley Park Stud horses now residing in Co. Waterford including Envoi Allen and Quilixios from Cullentra House.
When interviewed post-race on ITV, De Bromhead was running out of words to describe the achievements of the past month.
“It’s the stuff you dream about, it really is,” the Gold Cup and Grand National winning trainer said.
A month that De Bromhead could never have imagined beyond his wildest dreams. With a battalion of top quality horses at his stables, the sun is certainly shining in Knockeen and for very good reason.
All hail King Henry!
