When I first went to Cheltenham I sneaked in posing as a jockey! How Rachael Blackmore fell for the Festival

Rachael Blackmore reflects on Cheltenham firsts – of which there have been many – but one in particular makes her smile.

It involves some subterfuge, a bewildered parking attendant and memories of a night of debauchery, but through it all comes the essence of what makes this a sporting event like no other. After all, this is the racecourse where ambition soars and dreams can soar.

“I was 20 and went there with three of my girlfriends,” Blackmore, now 34, remembers. ‘I was very much on the other side of the parade ring. We would have gone to Club 21 that evening and let’s just say it was a very different experience to what Cheltenham is like for me now!

‘You feel it when you walk around: the atmosphere, the hustle and bustle. Oh, it’s just class! I knew all about Cheltenham growing up and my first real memory was War Of Attrition winning the Gold Cup for Mouse Morris in 2006. But when you are there for the first time, you are simply amazed.

“I remember when we drove in, one of the girls had a helmet in the back of her car. She held it out the window and said to the man at the gate, “Oh, we’re jockeys!” so we had to park in the jockey’s parking lot! She had a pink hat over the helmet, whatever she did, it worked.

“She saved us two miles of walking to get in!” I remember when we got there, we looked at the parade ring and thought, ‘God, it would be cool to ride here’… I dreamed of riding a winner, but I never expected it.”

How things change. Here she is, in the luxurious offices of Betfair on the outskirts of Dublin, as perhaps the most famous jump jockey in the industry; the buzz to get to Cheltenham may still be the same as it was fourteen years ago, but her journey has been such that she is now on course to become a serial winner. Blackmore would find that description uncomfortable, but the numbers bear it out.

Since her first Festival ride, when she took the 200/1 shot Magna Cartor to finish 11th of 14th ahead of Shark Hanlon in the 2017 Supreme Novices’ Hurdle, Blackmore has galloped relentlessly through the record books.

First woman to be the leading rider at the meeting; first woman to ride the Gold Cup winner.

An association with Honeysuckle – the beautiful mare who possessed celebrity status – that will stand the test of time. This is undeniably a career that shines like a firework. Her total for Cheltenham wins stands at 14 and with a book of excellent rides to come, that figure will almost certainly be added before the end of play on Friday. Every journey starts somewhere and tomorrow will neatly mark the fifth anniversary of her first success.

“Look at him!” says Blackmore with a smile as we watch her run up the hill on A Plus Tard in the Close Brothers Novices Handicap. Three years later the partnership would win the biggest race of them all, but this success is no less special.

‘The way he accelerated after the last one was unbelievable. Look, look at it! It was an incredible feeling, but you never take it for granted. How many times have you seen the dynamics of an uphill race change? Yes, he was by far the best horse, but it meant a lot because Henry (De Bromhead, the trainer) put a lot of trust in me. So to ride a winner was just incredible for him. At that time, to be a winning jockey at the Cheltenham Festival…’

Blackmore galloped relentlessly into the record books at the Cheltenham Festival

She pauses for a moment, but what follows leads to an even more pronounced silence. If you have only a passing interest in racing, fourteen successes at Cheltenham may not seem like much, but this should give context to what Blackmore has achieved.

Istabraq partner and nine-time Irish champion Charlie Swan retired with 17 festival wins; Richard Dunwoody, one of the all-time greats, had 18 victories.

“That’s mental,” she says. “Honeysuckle has been a big part of that and I just seem to have been very lucky. I just hope it stays that way. There will be a time to think about it when I’m done, but I’m still on that wheel.”

And that wheel will turn tomorrow from 1:30pm when she rides Slade Steel in the Supreme.

“It’s cool to be a part of it, but then the competitor in you takes over,” she says. You want to participate in the big races, you want to ride winners.

‘Everyone talks about it all year round. If you say to a jockey, ‘You will only ride one winner this season’, every one of them will reply, ‘Let it be at Cheltenham’. It’s that important.’

l BETFAIR has challenged Rachael Blackmore to raise up to £250,000 for the Irish and British Injured Jockeys Fund by April 13. She has earned £185,000 so far, with each winner worth £5,000. At Cheltenham they pay £10,000 for every success she enjoys.