I KNEW SHE COULD RACH HER POTENTIAL
Trainer Hanlon said colleagues thought he had gone mad when star went pro
We gave her a chance, everybody deserves that in my eye. She had a lot of talent
JOHN ‘SHARK’ HANLON
YESTERDAY
THE trainer credited with giving Grand National hero Rachael Blackmore her racing break has revealed his colleagues thought he had “gone mad” when he pushed her to go pro.
Eagle-eyed John “Shark” Hanlon encouraged her to make the move in 2015 after she rode multiple point-topoint and track winners for the Carlowbased trainer as an amateur.
He watched his former jockey write her name in racing history on Saturday as the first woman to win the Grand National.
Having already made last month’s Cheltenham Festival her own, she won the €863,000 Aintree showpiece on Henry de Bromhead mount Minella Times.
But Shark told the Irish Mirror there were plenty of doubters among owners and fellow trainers who saw her gender instead of her potential.
He said: “At the time that I turned her professional I had owners asking, ‘What the hell are you doing?’ and trainers saying, ‘Shark Hanlon has gone mad’, because she was a girl.
“We gave her a chance and everybody deserves that in my eye. I always thought that she had a lot of talent and that was the big thing with me.
“Nobody knew her like I did, she was a topper.”
Rachael turned professional having ridden 11 point-to-point winners and seven winners for Hanlon as an amateur rider, becoming only the second female licence holder in the history of Irish National Hunt racing.
Her first winner as a professional came on board Most Honourable at Clonmel on September 3, 2015, and two years later she became the first woman to win the Conditional Riders Championship in Ireland.
The 31-year-old has since struck up a deadly partnership with Waterford trainer De Bromhead who landed an unprecedented one two in the Aintree showpiece with Minella Times finishing ahead of his 100-1 shot Balko Des Flos.
After her Grand National win a delighted de Bromhead said Rachael had worked her way to the top of the racing world by riding winners.
Hanlon spotted that same work ethic and talent when she came to his yard in her 20s.
He said: “She was recommended to me around 2011 when I was looking for a girl to ride a horse for a ladies race in Thurles.
“She rode a winner for me on her first time out and then she rode another winner for me in a point-to-point race two weeks later in Horse and Jockey, she was with me for a good few years after that. She was the best worker that I ever let into my yard and nobody will ever beat her because she didn’t give a damn if it was 6 o’clock in the morning or 6 o’clock in the evening – if there was something to be done, she’d be there to do it for you.
“She was going to college as well at the time and I’m sure there were plenty of Saturdays and Sundays that she milked the cows for her father.”
Rachael is the daughter of a dairy farmer and a teacher and had originally dreamed of becoming a vet.
Shark said: “She’s a super jockey, she’s great to get a horse to jump and that was huge when she was with me.
“She was just an ordinary girl that turned out brilliant and every bit of success she’s after getting she deserves.”