Rachael Blackmore

As 2023 draws to a close, the TDN is asking industry members to name their favorite moment of the year. Send yours to suefinley@thetdn.com I have been fortunate to experience many wonderful days racing, but NEVER I have EVER heard a crowd response like when the two Queens of National Hunt racing, HONEYSUCKLE and Rachael Blackmore, returned to the Cheltenham winner enclosure the after the Close Brothers Mares' Hurdle (The David Nicholson Mares' Hurdle) in March of this year. The place was packed 20 deep, it went wild, it was...

Jim Bolger and Davy Russell announced their star-studded teams for Hurling for Cancer Research, which takes place in Netwatch Cullen Park in Carlow Monday Aug. 21. Throw-in is at 6 p.m. The two teams will be led by Wexford and Kilkenny legends Liam Griffin and Brian Cody acting as Bainisteoirs. The bevy of racing, sports and TV stars already confirmed for the event include David and Paudie Clifford, Rachael Blackmore, Ursula Jacob, Paul McGrath, Miriam O'Callaghan, Michael Duignan, Kevin Manning, Willie McCreery, Barry Geraghty, Marty Morrissey and Joanne O'Riordan are...

History-making jockey Rachael Blackmore, who in 2021 became the first woman to ride the winner of the Grand National, has been made an honorary MBE for services to sport. After landing Aintree's famous race aboard Minella Times (Ire), Blackmore, 33, also won the following season's Cheltenham Gold Cup on A Plus Tard (Fr). The Irish jockey was crowned leading rider at the Cheltenham Festival in 2021, the same year she won the BBC Sports Personality's World Sport Star of the Year award. Notably, she forged a famous partnership with the...

If it was racing stars you were looking for, the Treo Eile Thoroughbred Classic was where you could find them, as Rachael Blackmore, Robbie Power, and Charlie Swan turned out to support the event last Thursday night at the Emerald Equestrian Centre in County Kildare.  Treo Eile was set up to connect, support and promote the retraining of thoroughbreds and legends of the racetrack Tiger Roll, Douvan and the recently retired dual Gold Cup hero Al Boum Photo were all strutting their stuff on the evening.  A celebrity show jumping...

   Peter Molony is best known for being the man who bought the reigning Champion Hurdler Honeysuckle (GB) (Sulamani {Ire}) on behalf of his client Kenny Alexander. He also works for Sheikh Fahad's Qatar Racing operation, is an agent for Goffs and has had a multitude of top horses through his hands at Rathmore Stud. That may be why the Limerick native signs off on his Twitter bio with the word 'busy'!    Son of the legendary Martin Molony, widely regarded as the best dual-purpose jockey of all time, Peter...

The only man in history to win the Champion Hurdle, Champion Chase, Gold Cup and Grand National in the same season, Henry de Bromhead is not content on tightening his grip on the major jumps races and is now taking aim at the Irish 1,000 Guineas with Star Girls Aalmal (Ire) (Elzaam {Aus}).  De Bromhead signed off on another memorable National Hunt season at Punchestown last month by sending out Honeysuckle (GB) (Sulamani {Ire}) to win her 12th Grade 1 and extend her unbeaten record to 16. As the Flat...

CHELTENHAM, UK--Emotions ran high at Cheltenham on Friday as Rachael Blackmore, the most successful female National Hunt jockey of all time, continued to rewrite the history books, this time by becoming the first woman to win the Cheltenham Gold Cup. Her willing and sublimely talented partner was A Plus Tard (Fr) (Kapgarde {Fr}), who was runner-up to his stable-mate Minella Indo (Ire) (Beat Hollow {GB}) last year but turned the tables in emphatic fashion this time around. Tackling the defending champion for the lead over the final fence, the 8-year-old...

CHELTENHAM, UK--There are horses, and then there's Honeysuckle (GB). Thought it may seem like sacrilege to compare the superstar hurdler to the greatest racehorse of the modern era, there has been no better winning sequence on the turf since Frankel (GB) stepped off it to the breeding shed a decade ago, and Honeysuckle isn't stopping yet. The daughter of Sulamani (Ire) is now a dual Champion Hurdle winner, a treble Irish Champion Hurdle winner, unbeaten in 15 starts under rules, plus her debut triumph in a point-to-point at Dromahane at...

Jumps jockey Rachael Blackmore has been nominated in the World Sport Star category at the BBC Sports Personality of the Year Awards. Blackmore will be competing against tennis superstar Novak Djokovic and American football quarterback Tom Brady, boxer Saul 'Canelo' Alvarez, Formula One star Max Verstappen and Jamaican sprinter Elaine Thompson-Herah. The first woman to win the Cheltenham Champion Jockey title on the back of six wins during the festival including Honeysuckle (GB) (Sulamani {Ire})'s G1 Champion Hurdle victory, Blackmore also was the first female jockey to win the G3...

Jockey Rachael Blackmore will be awarded the 2021 Irish Racing Hero Award at the annual Horse Racing Ireland Awards in December. Blackmore became the first woman to claim the Cheltenham Festival Leading Jockey title with six winners. She found Champion Hurdle success with Honeysuckle (GB) (Sulamani {Ire}) on Tuesday, a Triumph Hurdle score with Quilixios (GB) (Maxios {GB}) on Friday and also won races in the middle of the meeting with Bob Olinger (Ire) (Sholokhov {Ire}) and Sir Gerhard (Ire) (Jeremy) on Wednesday and Allaho (Fr) (No Risk At All...

My fellow Americans, I put it to you that the 2021 Liverpool Grand National was an epoch-making sporting event --like the sub-4-minute mile of Roger Bannister in 1954 or the first MLB game of Jackie Robinson in 1947. In the 1944 movie "National Velvet" a very young Elizabeth Taylor faints and slides off her beloved horse Pie after having crossed the finish line first in the Grand National--that mad race where 40 horses and riders are to jump 30 high fences over 4 1/2 miles. The after-the-finish fall is what...

It's Craven week, followed by Greenham weekend, both coming on the back of some interesting Classic trials in Ireland and France. It is, as some people prefer to say in midwinter, the most wonderful time of the year.  There's no doubt, however, that the biggest racing story of the year has already happened. However much she wants to play down the gender card, Rachael Blackmore winning the Grand National aboard Minella Times (Ire) (Oscar {Ire}) was huge. In fact, Saturday was a big day on both sides for the world...