Such is her work ethic, Rachael Blackmore didn't think of letting the hair down until 48 hours until after her history-making Gold Cup win. She went straight from the Cheltenham festival to a race meeting at Thurles on Saturday, and it was only on Sunday night that she got to meet up with friends in Kilkenny.
“That’s why I’m sounding a bit groggy this morning,” she told reporters gathered at trainer Henry de Bromhead’s training yard in Knockeen, just outside Waterford city, on Monday.
“These are massive, massive moments in my life and it’s probably something that will really sink when you’re finished, but I can still feel the impact of it. It’s not passing me by.”
The Tipperary rider became the first woman to win the sport’s most prestigious steeplechase, guiding A Plus Tard to glory just days after landing the Champion Hurdle with Honeysuckle.
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It was a change to last year’s festival when she missed out on the Gold Cup to another de Bromhead-trained horse, Minella Indo. They reversed positions this time as Blackmore managed to pull away to win by 15 lengths at the finish.
Not that she knew much about it. “Sometimes you can hear a horse coming behind you or you can feel a horse coming behind you. . . but in Cheltenham you can’t hear any of that because it’s so loud and there’s so much atmosphere around you, so you don’t know how far ahead you are. I couldn’t believe it when I came back in and someone said I was 15 lengths ahead.”
‘That roar’
The involvement of the crowd was a change from last year when spectators were absent due to Covid restrictions. It was a “relief” for de Bromhead that his star rider could get the appreciation she deserved. “I just wanted her to get that roar,” he said.
Monday’s gathering at Knockeen was also a chance for staff to get together: three festival wins this year from the yard to add to six last year and a Grand National in between is no mean feat.
"You try not to think too big, because you'd be leaving heartbroken if you didn't meet your expectations, but this has been crazy," said Zoe Smalley, who divides her time between taking charge of horses on race days and studying agriculture at Waterford IT.
“The yard is a great place to work, we wouldn’t be the biggest yard in the country in terms of numbers but we’re one of the big ones now thanks to this. It’s a nice size with a good team of people here.”
De Bromhead is keen to keep it that way for the foreseeable. “I like the numbers we have. We’re very fortunate to have a brilliant team with us, great clients supporting us and, you know what, at the moment we’ve got a good number of horses and we’re able to win these races with them.”
