'I feel so incredibly lucky to have had the career I’ve had' - groundbreaking jockey Rachael Blackmore announces her retirement

Rachael Blackmore, the virtuoso jump jockey who enjoyed seminal triumphs in the Grand National, Gold Cup, Champion Hurdle and Champion Chase, has stunned the racing world by announcing her immediate retirement from riding.

At the end of a season in which she completed the full house of the Cheltenham Festival's marquee events when Bob Olinger landed the Stayers' Hurdle, Blackmore has decided to bring the curtain down on her career at the age of 35.

"My days of being a jockey have come to an end," she wrote in a post on X. "I feel the time is right. I'm sad but I'm also incredibly grateful for what my life has been for the past 16 years. I just feel so lucky to have been legged up on the horses I have, and to have experienced success I never even dreamt could be possible."

Blackmore, who spent three months on the sidelines in the autumn with a serious neck injury, departs the stage with a string of trailblazing firsts to her name.

She won each of the Cheltenham Festival's feature races, famously executing one of the great Gold Cup rides of modern times to secure the sport's pinnacle event in 2022 on A Plus Tard, who, like so many of her big winners, was trained by her most devoted ally Henry de Bromhead. He was among those she thanked on Monday.

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"The people to thank are endless, it’s not possible to mention everyone, as I don’t want this to be another book, but I’m going to get a few names in here anyway and to everyone else, you know who you are, as they say," Blackmore said. 

"First, my parents who provided me with the best childhood, and a pony I couldn’t hold! This set the seed for a life of racing. Aidan Kennedy gave me my first ride in a point-to-point. I spent time riding out for Arthur Moore and Pat Doyle which I loved. Sam Curling and Liam Lennon were also big supporters, as were Denise O’Shea, John Nicholson, Ellmarie Holden, Harry Smyth and Gigginstown House Stud.

"I rode my first winner for Shark Hanlon, who then helped me become champion conditional. I will be forever grateful to Shark for getting behind me, supporting me and believing in me when it would have been just as easy to look elsewhere. He was the catalyst for what was to come.  

"A conversation between [Gigginstown House Stud's] Eddie O’Leary and Henry de Bromhead in a taxi on the way to Aintree took my career to a whole new level. Eddie got me in the door at Knockeen, and what came next was unimaginable: Honeysuckle, A Plus Tard, Minella Indo, Captain Guinness, Bob Olinger, Minella Times, among many others . . . all with one thing in common – Henry de Bromhead. He’s a phenomenal trainer who brought out the best in me. Without Henry, my story is very different."

A Plus Tard and Rachael Blackmore after winning the 2022 Gold CupCredit: Patrick McCann (racingpost.com/photos)

In 2021, Blackmore secured an unprecedented landmark when beating all her male counterparts to be crowned leading rider at the Cheltenham Festival.

The following month, she rode the crest of a wave all the way to Aintree, claiming a heroic Grand National success on JP McManus's De Bromhead-trained Minella Times that resonated all over the world. Last year's Champion Chase victory on Captain Guinness meant she joined an elite group comprising just Ruby Walsh, Tony McCoy and Barry Geraghty to have won jumping's four most prestigious races, and this year's Stayers' meant she achieved a quintet that eluded the mighty McCoy, who never won the race. 

That victory in March, her second on the day, means Blackmore departs with 18 Cheltenham Festival winners, leaving her second in terms of current riders, behind only Paul Townend. Just eight jockeys in the history of the sport have ridden more festival winners than her.

When Blackmore had her first professional ride at the age of 25 aboard Redwood Boy at Down Royal on St Patrick's Day in 2015, she became the first female jump jockey to join the paid ranks in Ireland since Maria Cullen a quarter of a century earlier.

At that stage, she had left behind an inauspicious career as an amateur, but she went on to secure her status as the most successful female jump jockey ever in sensational fashion.

In 2017, thanks in no small part to staunch support from Hanlon, with 32 wins she became the first of her sex to secure the conditional riders' championship in Ireland, and she twice went close to winning the senior title, finishing second to Paul Townend in 2019 and 2021 with respective tallies of 90 and 92. Blackmore signs off with 564 winners, a record for a female jump jockey, as well as a further 12 on the Flat.

More than that, though, her exploits in a physically punishing sport that has long wrestled with perceptions of male bias, succeeded in transforming preconceptions about what it is possible for a female rider to achieve in jump racing.

Rachael Blackmore and Henry de Bromhead following Bob Olinger's Stayers' Hurdle winCredit: John Grossick (racingpost.com/photos)

In terms of promotion of the sport to a wider audience, Blackmore catapulted racing into another stratosphere by claiming some of the most historic sporting achievements of modern times.

Support from Michael O'Leary's Gigginstown House Stud ownership vehicle initially opened a door to her association with County Waterford-based De Bromhead, and in March 2021, at a Cheltenham Festival held behind closed doors during the Covid-19 pandemic, Blackmore wrote herself into Cotswolds folklore when guiding Honeysuckle to Champion Hurdle glory. It was the first time a female jockey had won a British championship race, although she had by then claimed two Irish Champion Hurdles on Kenny Alexander's brilliant mare.

Rachael Blackmore enjoyed a memorable partnership with HoneysuckleCredit: Patrick McCann (racingpost.com/photos)

Blackmore went on to carry all before her in the Cotswolds after that epic Champion Hurdle success in 2021, with further wins for De Bromhead aboard Bob Olinger, Telmesomethinggirl and Quilixios supplemented by two inspired front-running rides aboard Allaho in the Ryanair Chase and Sir Gerhard in the Champion Bumper for Willie Mullins.

Those six wins meant she was crowned leading rider with a tally that only Ruby Walsh – after whom the award is now named – has bettered. She bows out with an aggregate 33 Grade 1s.

Three years ago, Blackmore claimed racing's greatest prize with a truly sublime ride. Tackling the Gold Cup on A Plus Tard – her first festival winner in the old novice handicap chase in 2019 and on whom she had finished second to stablemate Minella Indo in the 2021 Gold Cup – she deployed exaggerated waiting tactics on the Cheveley Park-owned star.

Blackmore still had five horses in front of her turning into the straight and delayed her challenge until approaching the second-last fence. When she asked him to quicken, A Plus Tard surged clear for an emphatic victory, turning the tables on Minella Indo in devastating fashion.

Rachael Blackmore celebrates following her 2022 Cheltenham Gold Cup victory on A Plus TardCredit: Patrick McCann (racingpost.com/photos)

The 15-length margin of superiority was the widest since Master Oats' 1995 win, and meant Blackmore emulated McCoy by becoming the first rider since the 20-time champion to complete the Champion Hurdle-Gold Cup double the same year. Three days earlier, she and Honeysuckle had completed back-to-back wins in the Champion Hurdle.

Her 18th and final win at the meeting came aboard Bob Olinger, and now her legacy is complete. It might never be emulated, and so much has her status defined her identity that she concluded her announcement with an existential thought.

"It is daunting, not being able to say that I am a jockey anymore . . .  who even am I now?" she said. "But I feel so incredibly lucky to have had the career I’ve had. To have been in the right place at the right time with the right people, and to have gotten on the right horses – because it doesn’t matter how good you are without them. They have given me the best days of my life and to them I am most grateful."

Rachael Blackmore CV

Born Co. Tipperary, July 11, 1989

Parents Charles Blackmore (Tipperary farmer) & Eimir Blackmore (schoolteacher)

Educated University of Limerick (degree in equine science)

Apprenticeship amateur rider with Shark Hanlon

First winner under rules Stowaway Pearl (trainer Shark Hanlon) lady riders'; handicap hurdle, Thurles, February 10, 2011

First winner as professional Most Honourable, Clonmel, September 3, 2015

First Pattern winner Blow By Blow (2018 Michael Purcell Memorial Novice Hurdle)

First Cheltenham Festival winner A Plus Tard (2019 Close Brothers Novices' Handicap Chase)

First Grade 1 winner Minella Indo (2019 Albert Bartlett Novices' Hurdle)

Grand National winner Minella Times (2021)

Cheltenham Gold Cup winner A Plus Tard (2022)

Champion Hurdle winner Honeysuckle (2021, 2022)

Irish Champion Hurdle winner (Leopardstown) Honeysuckle (2020, 2021, 2022)

Punchestown Champion Hurdle winner Honeysuckle (2021, 2022)

Queen Mother Champion Chase winner Captain Guinness (2024)

Ryanair Chase winners Allaho (2021), Envoi Allen (2023)

Stayers' Hurdle winner Bob Olinger (2025)

Last winner Ma Belle Etoile, Cork, May 10, 2025

Highest-rated mount A Plus Tard (RPR 181 in 2022 Cheltenham Gold Cup)

Top jockey at Cheltenham Festival 2021 (6 wins)

Cheltenham Festival wins 18

Champion conditional jockey 2016-17

Runner-up in jump jockeys' championship 2018-19, 2020-21

Most wins in a season 100 in 2020-21 (Ireland 92, GB 8)

Total wins over jumps 564 (Ireland 527, GB 37) plus 12 on Flat

Sportswoman of the Year 2021 (Irish Times/Sport Ireland award)

Compiled by John Randall

Read these next:

Wonder women! Rachael Blackmore makes history with stunning win on Honeysuckle 

Rachael Blackmore makes history on 11-1 Minella Times in 2021 Grand National 

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