HYPE GROWS AS CHELTENHAM SET TO BEGIN
TUESDAY marks exactly five years since Rachael Blackmore rode her first Cheltenham Festival winner – and what a journey it has been since.
She has gone on to win the Gold Cup, Grand National, two Champion Hurdles, multiple other top races and become one of Ireland’s most recognisable sports stars.
Tuesday also marks the start of the 2024 Festival, with the Tipperary jockey once again set to partner an incredible team of horses for Henry de Bromhead’s powerhouse stable – and she is as hungry as ever for winners.
A Plus Tard was the horse that she guided to that first Cheltenham success, with Minella Indo providing her with another Prestbury Park victory three days later at odds of 50/1 back in 2019.
Reflecting on those successes, Blackmore told the Irish Sunday Mirror: “When I went to Cheltenham that year, Henry put me up on a lot of good horses and I’d never ridden a Cheltenham winner.
CHASE
“That was the year A Plus Tard won. I was getting on a horse like him who romped home in a handicap chase, Minella Indo that year won the Albert Bartlett.
“I think that year was just incredible because I was given the chance to ride horses of that calibre, it worked out and the ball rolled on from there.”
Roll on it most certainly did as incredibly both A Plus Tard and Minella Indo went on to win the Gold Cup in the years that followed. Blackmore finished runner-up to him on A Plus Tard in 2021 before going one better 12 months later.
A Plus Tard was retired earlier this year, but Minella Indo drops down in grade for the Cross Country Chase this year and looks to be one of Blackmore’s best chances of the week.
She said: “To be riding him in the Cross Country is really, really exciting.
“He was really, really good before Christmas over the Cross Country course so I cannot wait to ride him in it.”
Getting a winner on the board early in the week at Cheltenham is huge for jockeys and the awesome Honeysuckle gave Blackmore, 34, a Tuesday victory for each of the last four years.
But the marvellous mare has been retired.
Blackmore added: “Unfortunately Honeysuckle can’t go on for ever, as much as I’d love her to. To have had a winner on the Tuesday of Cheltenham, it just sets you up for the week.”
Honeysuckle’s victory in last year’s Mares Hurdle was a hugely emotional one for everyone involved with the horse, coming just months after the tragic death of trainer Henry’s 13-yearold son Jack de Bromhead.
Blackmore immediately paid tribute to him after the race, saying: “We all wish a very special kid could be here today but he’s watching down on us.” Reflecting
The Irish/english competition is something that never comes into my brain... I just want to ride winners myself