“Honeysuckle has never let me down to this day and I can’t see why this year would be any different.”
ON A relatively gloomy day at an uninspiring midweek fixture at Punchestown, the room was suddenly lit up by the arrival of horseracing’s brightest star.
Rachael Blackmore spared some time in her busy schedule to chat to the assembled press who had travelled over to talk to her about all things Cheltenham.
We are almost exactly 12 months on from what she described as the greatest four days of her sporting life to date, when the then 28-year-old rode six winners at the meeting.
A truly astonishing feat and one that meant she became the first female rider to land Cheltenham’s leading jockey award.
If the bar hadn’t been raised high enough, within weeks she then catapulted herself into the sporting elite by landing the Randox Health Grand National aboard Minella Times.
Again, another sporting first as she became the first woman to win the world’s greatest steeplechase.
Her rise to the top of the sport took only a matter of months, but she has taken all that in her stride.
And there are no signs of superstardom, just likeability with a brush of humility.
Despite all the success, she remains the same Rachael Blackmore she was this time last March.
“Where I am at now is honestly never a position I thought I would ever be in in my career,” she said.
From an early age she has been inspired by plenty of jockeys both past and present.
“I’m not sure you have enough space as I’ve had so many people that have helped me along the way.”
“I’m a sports fan like everyone else and you obviously look at the high achievers in other sports, but I suppose racing was always the sport I was drawn to as a kid.”
Blackmore modestly plays down her achievements, saying that she will only sit down and look back on everything when she has hung up her riding boots and her ‘hair has gone grey’, but she does remember a moment on her return from Aintree when the magnitude of what she had done started to sink in.
“I suppose the one time was when I came back home from the National and was driving through my hometown of Killenaule,” she recalled.
“It was crazy as I remember looking out of the car and seeing posters of myself in people’s windows.
“I guess that was the moment when it really resonated what my achievements had meant to all the people from where I am from.”
However, she is quick to point out that the memories of last year at Cheltenham and Aintree are fading fast and for her, and all other jockeys, it is very much about the future and, in particular, the next four days.
She heads into this week with another mouth-watering book of rides, including some of last year’s six heroes on a return mission for more glory.
However, as the hype gathers momentum and begins to reach fever pitch, Blackmore’s feet are still firmly planted on the ground.
“I try not to get too wrapped up in all that. It’s massive to have all the rides that I do, but I’m just trying to get one winner, and to be honest whatever happens after that is a bonus.
“The expectation is there now, but I know how hard it is to get winners in Cheltenham and you go there with the same mindset as every year – you are going there to get one winner.”
One thing which will be different this year is the return of crowds with Cheltenham’s management team expecting to welcome well over 250,000 people during the week, and there will plenty of the Blackmore clan and fans in amongst them.
“My sister asked me for tickets for the Thursday and Friday and when I asked how many, she said 10 for each day! That’s why it’s lucky I am an ambassador for the Jockey Club as they have helped me out on that front!
“She’s coming over with a battalion of people and my mum and dad will hopefully get over for a day as well.”
On paper her best chance of getting that one winner she craves comes on the very first day with the reigning Unibet Champion Hurdler Honeysuckle back to defend her crown.
Blackmore’s win 12 months ago aboard the Henry de Bromhead-trained superstar triggered an avalanche of winners for her at the meeting and brings back magic memories.
“To get that victory on Honeysuckle on the opening day last year was absolutely massive,” said Blackmore. “To win a Champion Hurdle was such a pinnacle for me and it’s a great help when something like that happens on the Tuesday; it takes a bit of pressure off for the rest of the week.”
“I remember landing after the last and having a little look up at the screen and that was the first time I let myself believe that this was going to happen. I just wanted the line to come and it took an age.”
As for tomorrow’s race, Honeysuckle is the red-hot favourite to make it 15 out of 15 having won both her two starts this campaign.
The eight-year-old ran out an impressive winner of the Irish Champion Hurdle at the Dublin Racing Festival at Leopardstown last month and her pilot is looking forward to the challenge.
“Honeysuckle has never let me down to this day and I can’t see why this year would be any different.”
Another one of Blackmore’s big chances at this year’s meeting looks set to be the exciting Bob Olinger, who is likely to be seen in Thursday’s Turners Novices’ Chase.
Last year’s Ballymore Novices’ Hurdle hero has won both of his starts over fences and Blackmore is looking forward to getting back aboard the seven-year-old.
She said: “I’ve been extremely happy with him. I think his jumping has been improving all the time and he’s a horse with a serious engine and one who I’m very lucky to ride.
“It was an incredible feeling last year coming down the hill on him and there’s not too many like him.
“He’s such a straightforward ride, he’ll come out of a gap for you, and it won’t light him up.”
Looking ahead to the feature race of the week, Blackmore will most likely be back on A Plus Tard in the Boodles Cheltenham Gold Cup and the pair will be looking to go one place better than 12 months ago.
A Plus Tard has since gone on to record an impressive 22-length victory in the Grade One Betfair Chase at Haydock Park in November and Blackmore is looking forward to the challenge.
“I’m very lucky in the horses I have to ride for the week and the Gold Cup is obviously a race I got wrong last year but hopefully I can win it this time.”
“I had the choice of A Plus Tard and Minella Indo last year and I picked the wrong one. Listen, it was a brilliant week but that was the Gold Cup. I don’t know if there is a word in the dictionary that can describe that feeling. It’s just hard.”
“Obviously I was delighted for the yard but flicking through the papers afterwards and seeing the Minella Indo Gold Cup picture gets you every time. That’s just the way it is.”
That reversal was one of a few low points at last year’s meeting which also saw Blackmore take her fair share of spills.
Plan Of Attack was still seemingly travelling well when falling three out in the Kim Muir Chase and in the process gave his pilot a crunching fall.
“I was slow to get to my feet,” said Blackmore. “It did hurt. I remember feeling frustration rather than pain as he still had something to give I felt, but that’s racing”.
“After that, I remember standing up and just being relieved that I was okay and could go again.”
Riders would be forgiven for treading carefully in the days leading up to big Festivals, but Blackmore stressed that she doesn’t avoid doing anything differently to her normal routine in terms of both her diet and her mind-set as a professional athlete.
She said: “I’m very lucky with my diet in that my weight is good so I’m okay in that sense and I’m very lucky at this stage of my career now that I get to ride horses for 12 months of the year, so I don’t have to change much of what I ride to be honest.
Accidents can happen at any stage, so I don’t change a whole lot to be honest and try and let these things creep up.
“As a jockey in general if you’re heading out in a race and thinking about what could go wrong or having a fall – it’s not a good mindset to be in – so you don’t let it enter your mind.”
On that note, it was time for Blackmore to disappear and go and do what she does best, climb up on the back of another horse.
Before she headed off, she reminded us all: “It doesn’t matter which race you’re in, you’re a very lucky person if you get to walk into the winners’ enclosure at Cheltenham.”
“We’re so lucky to be involved in the sport we’re in,” she added on her way out. The truth is the sport is lucky to have you, Rachael.