It was perhaps typical of Rachael Blackmore’s reserved character that her retirement came largely without fanfare.
Just two days after riding Ma Belle Etoile to a largely unheralded victory at Cork – the 575th winner of her 4,566-race career as a professional – one of the sport’s most decorated jockeys quietly stepped away from the spotlight.
Alongside her historic triumph in the Grand National triumph, Blackmore picked up 18 Cheltenham Festival wins, including the Gold Cup, and her absence from the racecards will be a sorry sight for punters when the Greatest Show on Turf rolls back into town next week.
And having been a constant presence at the Festival since her first race in 2017, adjusting to her new life away from the fitting room has taken some time.
‘I suppose, like overnight, your kind of purpose is gone,’ Blackmore, a Betfair Ambassador, tells Metro. ‘You go from being a jockey to not knowing what you are now. If someone asks me that, I still don’t really know the answer, to be honest.
‘I am so lucky that the career I had as a rider is still giving me opportunities now and is still giving me work now, so I’m so lucky in that sense, but it is different.
‘I rode out six days a week, I was racing whenever there was racing and everything else came second to that. Now I don’t have that same urgency about anything; things can be juggled, things can be moved.
‘If I get invited to something or asked to do something, I don’t have to check the racing calendar; those things are different for sure, but I’m getting used to it now.’
Sitting idly watching next week’s action from the enclosures would prove too frustrating and painful for Blackmore, and so the 36-year-old is glad that her first return to the Festival post-retiremnt comes with a new role as head of Cheltenham’s revamped Ladies’ Day.
‘It’s been fantastic, I’ve really, really enjoyed it,’ she says of her new job. ‘Cheltenham are recognised that ticket sales were only 25% of them were for ladies so they’ve got a lot of new initiatives in place to try and promote Ladies’ Day.
‘For me personally, it’s just been fantastic to be involved with the festival. I think I’d find it mentally quite difficult to just go to the festival and be a spectator whereas I’m going back with a purpose and a job to do as if I was still racing.’
‘Constitution Hill absence not a blow’
Blackmore’s absence from the week’s racing action is perhaps only rivalled by that of Constitution Hill, one of National Hunt racing’s most recognisable horses, who was pulled out of this year’s Champion Hurdle to pursue a career in Flat racing.
Trained by Nicky Henderson, the nine-year-old lit up the Festival with dominant victories in 2022 and 2023, but suffered falls in three of his last four races, including in the Champion Hurdle this time last year.
Blackmore, though, is keen to look for the positive, insisting: ‘I don’t think it’s a blow to the festival. I think straight away the conversation has moved on to the incredible horses left in the race and the excitement that they will all bring with it being blown wide open.
‘I think Constitution Hill has got an incredible fan base as a horse and they’re all, me included, will be looking forward to seeing where he turns up next and how he gets on with the flat campaign.’
For Blackmore, and most racing enthusiasts, though, the main spectacle remains Friday’s blue-ribband event, the Gold Cup.
Last year saw heavy favourite Galopin Des Champs fall short in its tilt at racing immortality as Inothewayurthinkin powered to a surprise victory to prevent the Willie Mullins-trained thoroughbred from becoming just the fifth horse to win the prestigious contest three consecutive times.
A third-place finish at last month’s Irish Gold Cup, behind stablemates Fact To File and Gaelic Warrior, has Galopin Des Champs returning to the Greatest Show on Turf with lowered expectations.
But Blackmore, a winner of the Gold Cup in 2022 aboard A Plus Tard, is confident jockey Paul Townend can summon one more great performance from the two-time champion.
‘He’s a powerhouse of a horse, and knows what it takes to get it done around that course,’ Blackmore says.
‘And from what I’m hearing, and the positivity that we’re hearing from Willie about him in the last few days, I’d be putting my hands up to ride him over anyone else. I still think there’s one more great race in him.’
Rachael Blackmore was speaking ahead of the Cheltenham Festival, play different at this year’s festival with Betfair.
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