Jockey Rachael Blackmore's Gold Cup win at Cheltenham was described as the "moment of a lifetime" by her proud father Charles yesterday.
Blackmore will be back riding at Thurles today near her home town of Killenuale, Co Tipperary.
“I don’t know how she does it but she is able to balance riding the horse, deal with owners and trainers and the press. She gets a balance that doesn’t upset anyone which is a hard thing to achieve,” her father said.
"She takes life in her stride and seems to me that in England and Ireland if you mention Rachael you don't need to mention her second name as people know who she is. That is where we are at. She has done all this herself and has not stepped on people's toes doing it."
As fellow jockey Barry Geraghty remarked beforehand, Blackmore winning the Gold Cup was the “result that everybody wanted for racing”.
Her win was watched by her father Charles, her sister Charlotte and her brother Jonathan, known as Johnny, who had flown into the UK from New York for the occasion. Blackmore’s nervous mother Eimir watched from the sofa at home in Co Tipperary.
As jockey Barry Geraghty remarked beforehand, Blackmore winning the Gold Cup was the "result that everybody wanted for racing", but racing is not like that. Everybody wanted Tiger Roll to win his last race and it did not happen.
It is another glorious chapter for a woman who is now surely Ireland’s surely most famous sports star, male or female.
Her win was watched by her father Charles, her sister Charlotte and her brother Jonathan, known as Johnny, who had flown into the UK from New York for the occasion. Blackmore’s nervous mother Eimir watched from the sofa at home in Co Tipperary.
Last year Blackmore had the choice of Minella Indo or A Plus Tard for Cheltenham’s blue riband event.
She chose the wrong horse and A Plus Tard finished second behind Minella Indo. She remained loyal to the eight-year-old and he repaid his loyalty in winning by 15 lengths from Minella Indo.
Rarely has there been such an emphatic victory in National Hunt’s most competitive race.
Glorious sunshine and a huge crowd accompanied the last day of the Cheltenham festival. It was a day for sunglasses and sun cream.
There was standing room only around the balconies and the stands to get a glimpse of National Hunt’s superstar jockey as she came into the parade ring. There was another all-time daily attendance record at the festival on Friday with 73,875 punters. The cumulative attendance for the week of 280,627 was also a record.
Role model
The jockey herself is modest and deflects talk of being a role model, preferring to dwell on the quality of horses given to her to ride by trainer Henry de Bromhead.
She is surely an inspiration now to so many young people, especially young girls having not won her first Grade 1 race until she was 29. Now she cannot stop winning.
“When I took out my licence, I didn’t think I would be riding at Cheltenham, let alone a favourite in the Gold Cup. I’m so lucky to be getting the chance to ride horses in these kinds of races. This is the Gold Cup, you know what I mean?” she said afterwards.
“I never even dreamed that I could be doing this. What I am doing now is a dream that I never thought I would have because it was not even in my reality. You can never dream too big,”
It was another great day for the modest trainer de Bromhead who has won a Champion Hurdle/Gold Cup double in successive years and also a double-double of a one-two in Cheltenham's biggest race in successive years.
He punched the air and saluted the delirious fans who had gathered to watch the Gold Cup. Last year was a brilliant festival too for de Bromhead and Blackmore, but it was all played out against the sound of silence because of Covid-19.
“It definitely does [mean more this year than last] - it’s the crowds, just looking here at the stands. It’s just incredible and this is what it’s all about. It was amazing to win it last year, but it’s triple amazing this year,” he said.
De Bromhead said he hoped the future Queen of England will meet the undisputed Queen of Cheltenham when Prince Charles and his wife visit Ireland next week.
Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall is due to visit de Bromhead's yard in Knockeen, Co Waterford next week.
De Bromhead said he hoped Blackmore and Honeysuckle, the winner of the Champion Hurdle, will be there too.
“I think she (Camilla) will be more interested in meeting them than me,” he said.
It was a clean sweep of seven wins out of seven for the Irish raiders on the final day and the Prestbury Cup returns to Ireland with 18 victories against 10 for the British.
It was a great festival too for Willie Mullins who trained ten winners to break the previous joint record of eight. It has been a festival of records for the Irish.
