Rachael Blackmore: Winner of the Grand National, Cheltenham Gold Cup, and Champion Hurdle

Rachael Blackmore retired as a National Hunt jockey rather suddenly in May 2025 and followed the famous old advice to leave them wanting more. She went out at the top of her game, and her status as the greatest British or Irish female jumps jockey of all time is likely to remain for a good many years. Indeed, most informed judges would argue that she is the GOAT of all female riders, including those who plied their trade on the flat.

The Irish superstar won almost all of the biggest races in the National Hunt sphere. She was a pioneer and has given women to come after her something to aim for. She is a brilliant role model and has shattered the sport’s glass ceiling, as well as proving that there are no limits to what a female jockey can achieve.

Who Is Rachael Blackmore?

Rachael Blackmore.

You are an incredible jockey. 🙌 pic.twitter.com/LyRnAai67R

— CheltenhamRacecourse (@CheltenhamRaces) March 18, 2022

Blackmore was born in County Tipperary, Ireland, in the small town of Killenaule, on the 11th of July 1989. That small town, population well under 1,000, would produce a jockey of outstanding talent, bravery and skill. Unlike many stars in the sport, hers was not a particularly racing-mad family, with no huge connection to it.

Her mother Eimir was a teacher, and her father Charles was a dairy farmer. However, that rural background meant that horses were always around, as is the case for so many of the world-class racing stars Ireland produces. Her parents were hugely supportive from a very young age, another factor that tends to be common among successful athletes in any sport.

She first rode a pony at the age of two, and her involvement with horses (ponies initially) spanned racing, hunting and eventing. As she grew older, it became clear that riding horses was what she wanted to do, and she began taking part in point-to-point racing as an amateur jockey. She went on to land 11 winners in that sphere, as well as seven under rules, before turning professional in the spring of 2015.

Talent Clear

Growing up around horses gave Blackmore that instinctive understanding of the animals, and her abundant talent soon made itself clear. Within six months of entering the pro ranks, she landed her first winner, guiding Most Honourable to victory at Clonmel on the 3rd of September 2015.

That horse was trained by John “Shark” Hanlon, who had also been the trainer of Stowaway Pearly, who gave Blackmore her first-ever winner over four years earlier in February 2011, when she was just 21 years old. By 2017, she was creating her first major piece of history, as she landed the Irish conditional riders’ championship, becoming the first woman to do so. She rode 32 winners across 2016/17 to claim that title. She also got her first really big win in March 2017, riding Abolitionist to glory in the Leinster National Handicap Chase at Naas. Even greater glory was just around the corner.

90 Winners in 2018/19

In 2018/19, Blackmore came second in the Irish Jockeys’ Championship, having ridden 90 winners. On Easter Sunday of 2019, she rode her first Irish Grade 1 winner, taking the Irish Stallion Farms EBF Mares Novice Hurdle Championship Final. That victory at Fairyhouse came aboard Honeysuckle, a brilliant mare with whom Blackmore’s career will always be associated.

Two seasons later, she would again be runner-up, this time improving her tally to 92 winners. 2018 was a landmark (calendar) year for the jockey, her rides leaping from 422 in 2017, with 39 victories, to 584 rides and 85 wins. 2019 saw a similar picture, with Blackmore boasting a strike rate of over 13% thanks to 76 winners from her 578 rides, with 104 places as well.

She would ride the majority of her races across her career in her home country, but her increasingly strong performances meant she began to get big rides on this side of the Irish Sea too. 2018 brought her first outing in the Grand National, aboard 33/1 shot Alpha Des Obeaux, while she landed her first winner at the Cheltenham Festival the following year when riding A Plus Tard to victory in the Centenary Novices’ Handicap Chase.

As a stable jockey for Henry de Bromhead, she had a fine string of horses and that same Festival she landed her first Grade 1 when taking the Albert Bartlett aboard Minella Indo. In doing so, the Tipperary girl became the first woman to win a Grade 1 hurdles event at the Cheltenham Festival, just one of countless landmarks throughout her career.

2021 a Year to Remember

The 2020s, up to her retirement, were a brilliant decade for the Irishwoman and 2020 got the ball rolling as she landed the Irish Champion Hurdle for the first time. Blackmore and Honeysuckle would complete a hat-trick of consecutive wins in that one, but 2021 was perhaps the finest year of the jockey’s career. Perhaps.

She won her first championship race at the Cheltenham Festival, Honeysuckle helping her add the Champion Hurdle to her CV. She was the first woman to ride the winner in that one, but another, more incredible feat was to come. At that year’s Festival, she rode an amazing six winners, making her the most successful jockey at Cheltenham that year and earning her the Ruby Walsh Trophy. She remains the only woman to have won it, and that record is likely to remain in place for some time, in our opinion.

Included in her wins were more Grade 1s and the unofficial fifth championship race, the Ryanair Chase. Allaho was her partner in that one, and she would win it again in 2023 on Envoi Allen.

2021 Gets Even Better

Rachael Blackmore and Minella Times win the Grand National! pic.twitter.com/czIIh2SsuV

— At The Races (@AtTheRaces) April 10, 2021

There were many who (strangely) thought a woman was incapable of winning the Grand National, with some very famous names suggesting they lacked the strength to do so. Blackmore proved them all wrong. Just a month on from her amazing four days at Cheltenham, she rode Minella Times to an incredible win in the Aintree Grand National.

Sent off at odds of 11/1, the J.P. McManus runner was well fancied and Blackmore gave her trainer, De Bromhead, his first win in the race too. It was a 1-2 for the trainer, but all eyes were on Blackmore, who gave her horse a brilliant ride to see off Balko Des Flos, a 100/1 shot.

The National captures the imagination of the public, and Blackmore’s feats at Cheltenham and then Aintree really cut through to the wider public. As a result, she saw off Tom Brady, Novak Djokovic and others to win the BBC Sports Personality’s World Sport Star of the Year. She was the first Irish winner of the award, just another first for the long list.

More Big Wins

In 2022, she again did the Irish Champion Hurdle and (Cheltenham) Champion Hurdle double. However, that year she won the classiest steeplechase of them all, landing the Gold Cup aboard A Plus Tard. It was a masterful ride and the favourite won by a massive 15 lengths. Blackmore remains the only woman to have won the race.

Blackmore was made an MBE in 2023 and the following year won yet another huge Cheltenham race, landing the Champion Chase on Captain Guinness. In 2025, she completed the set, partnering up with Bob Olinger to claim the Stayers’ Hurdle. She retired with 18 Cheltenham winners to her name, a tally bettered by only seven riders at the time. But it is the quality of the races she won that really stands out, and only the very best of the best have won the National, in addition to all of Cheltenham’s top prizes.