IN his winning speech from the Hogan Stand on Sunday, Louth captain Sam Mulroy began to the cheers … “After a very, very, long 68 years, the John Delaney Cup is back in Louth!”

If that was a long journey, it’s an even longer, barely imaginable one, from a Tipperary point-to-point to the winning post in the Grand National (never mind the Royal Box at Wimbledon!).

But back in 1957, would anyone ever have thought a female jockey would win the Grand National or, perhaps even more of an achievement, win all the top races at the Cheltenham Festival?

A female jockey, competing in a centuries old, male dominated sport, where strength in the saddle was seen as the vital element to ensure success, there were centuries of history to overcome to end the belief that a girl would never be up to this challenge.

In a sport where males held the cards in allowing opportunities for a chance to prove yourself, to get to the top was truly setting out on the road not taken

On YouTube you can find a flashback to muddy day at Nenagh point-to-point in January 2013. A somewhat bedraggled young girl is one of those interviewed in a 15-minute piece called Girls With Whips speaking to the riders in the ladies’ open and their hopes for a career in the racing industry.

Ms R Blackmore’s form book entry for that race is a PU on Universal Truth, (a son of Galileo no less!), trained by Andrew McNamara. Interviewed in the weigh tent, she was asked if she thought she could make a career with horses. The answer was: “I could see myself working with horses but in relation to riding, everyone kind of runs out at some stage. You have to be really good to last the time.”

Really good? Yeah! Just how good were these last six years?

For such stellar years, the steps were acutally gradual, looking back to those whom she thanked this week.

The summers of learning with Shark Hanlon. There were 10 rides including four second-place finishes on Personal Shopper for Harry Smyth that first professional summer in 2015.

A personal memory was from the stands at Fairyhouse in 2017 on Ellmarie Holden’s Abolutionist, of her coming to challenge and the noise rising from the stands, ‘Come on Rachael’. It was a rare moment to hear a female rider get cheered on by punters in a big handicap.

Blackmore always maintained that Nina Carberry and Katie Walsh had broken through and made things easier for her but this point made by Alastair Jones in the Weekender should also be borne in mind.

”Not only did she gate-crash a male-dominated profession, but she did so without the springboard of a racing background. Talk about defying the odds.”

She was acknowledged to be as good as any rider and recalled later that she had felt a bit of pressure ahead of getting that first Cheltenham win on A Plus Tard in 2019.

Phenomenal

If Cheltenham is how we measure jump racing success - and it probably is - Blackmore’s record in six years was phenomenal.

Her winners’ odds ranged from 50/1 to 8/11. They were not all expected. The expected ones were in the big races, extra pressure.

She had to step in on horses she’d not ridden before in that 2021 Cheltenham on Sir Gerhard and Quilixios. She bounced back from some nasty falls there too.

The wins came from the front, daring on Allaho; tactically astute, pulling the speed from favourite Kilcruit on Sir Gerhard in the Champion Bumper; alert again on Honeysuckle, making the decisive first move in the first Mares’ Hurdle.

She learned from the first defeat on A Plus Tard in the Gold Cup, delaying the challenge next time just that half a furlong later to seal a famous win. Cool, collected on Bob Olinger in the Stayers’, a perfect farewell this year.

It was 20 years ago that Ginger McCain, Red Rum’s trainer, famously said before the 2005 Grand National: “Horses do not win Grand Nationals ridden by women, that’s a fact....you have to be a top-class professional.”

Times were a-changing. Carberry and Walsh made huge strides and the National may be less of a game of chance but the race is not one to approach with confidence for success, Alpha Des Obeaux sent her flying at The Chair fence in 2018. Yet the National too was claimed, the only regret was the Covid crowd restrictions year.

It was very fitting that the announcement came quietly after a season and a Cheltenham when her skills were again so very evident.

She never courted attention but, as the many tributes from all elements of the sport noted, she gave much of her time willingly to promote the sport and engage with young fans.

Fancied favourites

At 16/1 and 8/1, her final Festival winners were not the fancied favourites of a few years back but in partnering a horse like Bob Olinger who had won as a novice and many had written off, producing him with finesse to complete the full set of Cheltenham feature races, Champion Hurdle, Mares’ Hurdle, Champion Chase, Ryanair, Stayers’Hurdle and Gold Cup, it was the most fitting of finales.

And it came at the end of a season where the danger that ride with jumps jockeys who go flat out to a final fence were so tragically brought home.

What of her longer legacy?

We’ve seen in my wee county over the last few years how winning inspires more athletes to make the effort, to put in the work, to improve, to the follow the dream, the ‘I see so I can be’.

And, while Blackmore is the benchmark for what can be achieved, will much change?

You couldn’t but note in the giving credit piece of Blackmore’s signing-off message, most of those paving the way in the early days are male. Shark Hanlon, Eddie O’Leary, Henry de Bromhead, key figures in placing the trust to raise her to the highest platform.

But my colleague Amy Corrado, who also held a jockey’s licence, made some interesting points when I asked her what Blackmore has done for female riders.

“Rachael being amazing didn’t make people realise ‘oh wow, there’s actually loads of amazing female jockeys because there aren’t loads of amazing female jockeys, and there never have been, Rachael was just something else.

“It didn’t make trainers say ‘well Rachael is amazing so I’ll give this girl a chance’, they just wanted Rachael on their horse, not another girl.

“She has given women an amazing role model to look up to, but any female rider would have to put in the work to be as good as Rachael before they’d get the smallest chance of emulating anything she’s done, and I can’t see that happening for many years.”

You can’t really say a glass ceiling has been smashed until it’s gone forever.

If the ‘next’ Rachael seems far off on the horizon, she has ensured that owners, trainers and punters can accept that a girl can accomplish anything a male rider could do on a jumping horse in terms of strength and ability, in the tightest finishes, on the biggest days.

Her signing-off message typically downplayed what has been an amazing few years, grateful to “have been at the right place, at the right time, with the right people and to have gotten the right horses”. You may get to a right place but, without the talent in competitive sport, you’ll not stay there.

It’s been a wonderful watch.