Blackmore first woman to win Grand National

A Hollywood fantasy turned into reality Saturday when Rachael Blackmore became the first female jockey to win Britain’s grueling Grand National horse race, breaking down one of the biggest gender barriers in sports.

Blackmore, 31, an Irishwoman, rode Minella Times to a landmark victory at odds of 11-1 in the

173rd edition of the famous steeplechase at Aintree in Liverpool, northwest England

“I don’t feel male or female right now. I don’t even feel human,” Blackmore said. “This is just unbelievable.”

Blackmore is the

20th female jockey to compete in a race that has been a mud-splattered British sporting institution since 1839. Women have been allowed to enter the National as jockeys since 1975, making it a male-dominated event — until now.

“I never even imagined I’d get a ride in this race, never mind get my hands on the trophy,” Blackmore said.

After all, the 1944 Hollywood movie “National Velvet” was the story of a 12-year-old girl, Velvet Brown — played by a young Elizabeth Taylor — who won the Grand National on The Pie, a gelding she decided to train for the world’s biggest horse race.

Even though Aintree was without race-goers because of the pandemic, cheers rang out as Blackmore made her way off the course — still aboard Minella Times — and into the winner’s enclosure. She looked as if she couldn’t believe what she had done.

“For all the girls who watched National Velvet!” tweeted Hayley Turner, a former jockey. “Thank you Rachael Blackmore, we’re so lucky to have you.”

Blackmore had special praise for her parents, who “took me around the country riding ponies when I was younger.”

“I still feel like that little kid,” she said.

Rachael Blackmore