Rachael Blackmore

Rachael Blackmore

Rachael Blackmore is the most successful female jump jockey of all time, her victories including the Grand National and all five of Cheltenham’s feature racers: the Gold Cup, Champion Hurdle, Champion Chase, Ryanair Chase and Stayers’ Hurdle.

Born in Co. Tipperary, July 11, 1989, she is the daughter Charles Blackmore, a Tipperary farmer, and Eimir Blackmore, a schoolteacher. She completed her education at the University of Limerick where she obtained a degree in equine science.

She began her racing career as an amateur rider with Shark Hanlon and rode her first winner under rules on Stowaway Pearl, trained by Hanlon, in a lady riders' handicap hurdle at Thurles on February 10, 2011.

She turned conditional In 2015, aged 25, becoming the first female jump jockey to join the paid ranks in Ireland since Maria Cullen a quarter of a century earlier. She had her first professional ride aboard Redwood Boy at Down Royal on St Patrick’s Day in 2015, finishing fifth in a conditional jockeys’ handicap hurdle. Her first winner as a professional was achieved on Most Honourable, trained by Shark Hanlon, in a handicap hurdle at Clonmel on September 3, 2015.

Thanks primarily to the support from Shark Hanlon, in the 2016/17 season she became the first female to secure the conditional riders’ championship in Ireland, riding 32 winners. She rode her first Pattern race winner on Blow By Blow in the 2018 Michael Purcell Memorial Novice Hurdle.

She gained the first of what would eventually be 18 winners at the Cheltenham Festival on A Plus Tard in the 2019 Close Brothers Novices’ Handicap Chase on the opening day. Three days later she achieved her first Grade 1 success on Minella Indo in the 2019 Albert Bartlett Novices’ Hurdle.

In 2020 she won the first of three consecutive Irish Champion Hurdles (2020, 2021, 2022) at Leopardstown on the brilliant Kenny Alexander-owned mare Honeysuckle, trained by Henry De Bromhead. They also won back-to-back renewals of the Punchestown Champion Hurdle in 2021 and 2022. 

In 2021 she became the only female jockey to win any of Cheltenham’s traditional triple crown of championship races when guiding Honeysuckle to the first of their two successive Champion Hurdles. That year’s Cheltenham Festival, which took place behind closed doors during the Covid-19 pandemic, saw her add further wins for De Bromhead aboard Bob Olinger, Telmesomethinggirl and Quilixios, supplemented by victories aboard Allaho in the Ryanair Chase and Sir Gerhard in the Champion Bumper for Willie Mullins. Those six wins meant she was crowned the Festival’s leading rider. 

The following month, she gained a heroic Grand National success on JP McManus’s Minella Times, also trained by De Bromhead, a victory that resonated worldwide. She was deservedly voted Sportswoman of the Year at that year’s Irish Times/Sports Ireland awards ceremony. 

In 2022 she landed the Cheltenham Gold Cup on A Plus Tard, on whom she had finished second to stable-mate Minella Indo the year before, having chosen to ride A Plus Tard instead. They still had five horses in front of them turning for home but Rachael delayed her challenge until the second-last fence. A Plus Tard surged clear to record an emphatic 15-length triumph, turning the tables on Minella Indo in the process. The margin of victory was the widest since Master Oats’ 1995 win, and meant Rachael became the first rider since AP McCoy to achieve the Champion Hurdle-Gold Cup double in the same year. Three days earlier, she and Honeysuckle had completed back-to-back wins in the Champion Hurdle.

At the 2023 Cheltenham Festival she won a second Ryanair Chase on Envoi Allen. The following year she won the Queen Mother Champion Chase on Captain Guinness, a victory which saw her join an elite group comprising just Ruby Walsh, AP McCoy and Barry Geraghty to win each of the sport's four most prestigious races.

In 2025 she added the Stayers’ Hurdle aboard Bob Olinger, meaning she had achieved a quintet that eluded even the mighty McCoy. 

She rode what proved to be her last winner on Ma Belle Etoile, appropriately trained by her biggest supporter Henry De Bromhead, in a novice hurdle at Cork on May 10, 2025. Two days later she surprised the racing world by announcing her retirement from the saddle with immediate effect, aged 35.

She rode a total of 564 winners over jumps comprising 527 in Ireland and 37 in Great Britain, plus 12 on Flat. Her victories included 33 at Grade 1 level..  

She twice finished second to Paul Townend in the 2018/19 and 2020/21 in Ireland’s jockeys’ championship with respective tallies of 90 and 92. The latter was her most successful season in terms of number, 100 altogether, 92 in Ireland plus eight in Britain.