Racing Post

Simply the best: no-one I’ d rather have on my side than brilliant Blackmore

DAVID JENNINGS

IT WAS a pretty innocuous rhetorical question and I expected a pretty innocuous answer. “She seems to be riding better than ever since she’s come back, Henry?” It was, of course, in relation to Rachael Blackmore after she had got Gua De Large up late to land the handicap hurdle last Sunday, half an hour after Honeysuckle had made it 13 straight wins.

“She’s incredible,” agreed De Bromhead. And there was more.

“She’s just so tough. She was in a wheelchair straight after she got the injury. I rang her a couple of weeks later and she was on crutches and next thing she’s [back riding]. The speed of her recovery was incredible. I’d often ring her and she would be walking in the sea and doing this or doing that. That’s what they do, those really successful ones.”

The thing is, one bad fall was supposed to be what loosened the lid on Blackmore’s bottle. Well, they don’t get much worse than the one she suffered from Merry Poppins at Killarney in July and, by all accounts, the recovery was even rougher than any of us realised. Yet it has had no effect on her whatsoever.

Did you see the way she fired Ballyadam into the fourth-last in a beginners’ chase at Navan last month? He looked about as natural over fences as I am at yoga, yet she flung him into it and wasn’t contemplating any consequences. The race was there to be won and she wanted to win it.

I always think the best compliment you can give a jockey is to describe them as a ‘big-race rider’; the ones who can produce the goods on the big days when it matters most. Like Ruby used to do on the Tuesday at Cheltenham every year. That is what Blackmore has become. She is now a big-race rider.

Take the last two weekends, for instance. Everything up the Haydock home straight was effortless on A Plus Tard. Yes, of course she was riding the best horse in the Betfair Chase, but she could have panicked at any of the four fences up the straight.

She could have tried to go up the inside of Royale Pagaille before four out; she could have asked for a big one three out to try to seal the deal; and she certainly could have reduced the revs approaching the last to make sure she got from A to B. Instead she did it the Rachael way. She doesn’t believe in fuss.

The Hatton’s Grace was a funny sort of race. Stormy Ireland did what Stormy Ireland does, but instead of relying on something else to take her into the contest, Blackmore decided to do it all herself. There was an extraordinary unbeaten record to preserve and she knew it. When you are riding Honeysuckle these days there is only one thing that matters: winning. It doesn’t matter how it is achieved once it is achieved.

Yes, she found herself in front much earlier than she would have liked, but it was better than finding herself much further behind than she would have liked. Honeysuckle won again and Blackmore deserves more credit than she got for that happening. Had she buried herself in the pack, Ronald Pump would have got first run and he is a strong stayer over the trip.

The first time I interviewed Blackmore was in January 2014 when she told me this: “Obviously Nina [Carberry] and Katie [Walsh] are fantastic, but if I am riding in a point, I’m always looking out for where Derek [O’Connor] and Jamie [Codd] are.

“They are just different class altogether. It’s unreal what they are doing. The way I look at it is, if I am positioned close enough to them in a race then I can’t be going too far wrong.”

Fast-forward eight years and Blackmore is the one everyone is looking for in a race. If they are positioned close enough to her, they can’t be going too far wrong.

Blackmore has long been the poster girl for our sport, breaking boundaries for women everywhere she goes, but, knowing her, that would never have been her aim. She wanted to be the best, male or female.

Well, Rachael, right now you are exactly that. On the big day, when it matters most, there is nobody I would rather have on my horse. You will see that tomorrow in a delicious John Durkan at Punchestown where she teams up with Envoi Allen once again. If he is good enough, he will win, and I hope to God he is.

BLACKMORE is just three steps away from legendary status if you ask me. Step one: win the RTE Sportsperson of the Year, and both BoyleSports and Paddy Power have stopped taking bets on that happening even though this is a year which has seen Kellie Harrington win a gold medal at an Olympic Games.

Step two: win the Cheltenham Gold Cup. A Plus Tard is 3-1 to do that in March.

Step three: win the jockeys’ championship. She is 6-4 with

Paddy Power to do that this season after reducing the gap on Darragh O’Keeffe to ten winners. More importantly, she is already a dozen clear of defending champion Paul Townend. This could be her best chance yet.

That means Blackmore is basically a 9-1 shot to achieve legendary status by next May. In a few short months her CV could include a Grand National, Champion Hurdle, Gold Cup, RTE sportsperson of the year award and a jockeys’ championship.

Don’t you think Blackmore is the best jockey riding anywhere right now? That is a rhetorical question by the way.

‘I always think the best compliment you can give a jockey is to describe them as a ‘ big-race rider’. That is what Blackmore has become’

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2021-12-04T08:00:00.0000000Z

2021-12-04T08:00:00.0000000Z

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