Rachael Blackmore reveals whether she’d reverse retirement decision | Racing | Sport

Jockey Rachael Blackmore retired from race riding last year after a legendary career filled with Cheltenham Festival success. But the Irish rider has addressed the possibility of reversing her decision.

After 16 years in the game, Blackmore decided to call it quits last May at the age of 35. In a typically impressive fashion, her last ride was a winning one, guiding Ma Belle Etoile to victory at Cork.

Her CV speaks for itself. Blackmore’s love affair with the festival was on full display in 2021. She became the first woman to be named leading jockey at the meeting with six winners, partnering with trainer Henry de Bromhead.

She followed this up with a triumph in the Grand National aboard Minella Times, becoming the first female to achieve this feat.

A year later, she steered A Plus Tard to 2022 Cheltenham Gold Cup glory, which no woman had ever done before.

Blackmore ended her career with a whopping 18 festival winners and has addressed the possibility that we might see her back in the saddle at some point.

“It’s definitely not a reversible decision for me anyway,” Betfair ambassador Blackmore exclusively told Express Sport.

“I’m very content with what I achieved in the sport and the incredible horses I got to ride. I was so lucky. I’m very happy with all that. But it felt like it was my time to finish.

“It was a hard decision, because I still love riding and racing. Part of me would have loved to have been galloping down to the start in the Supreme Novices.

“But as a sports person, as a jockey in particular, you get to decide when you retire. Not a lot of people get to do that. So you’re lucky when you get to make that decision.”

Blackmore won’t be entirely absent from this year’s festival.

She has been appointed the ambassadorial head of Ladies’ Day and will host Q&A sessions, as well as participate in the reintroduction of traditional events on the second day of the meeting.

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She added: “I’m very lucky that I’m being kept busy by lots of different things. I went from being a jockey to not being anything, in a way.

“It’s so different, your routine. My life revolved around racing. I rode out six days a week. I was racing when there was racing. Everything came second to that. Whereas now life is different.

“I think last year during the festival, I had an incredible day on Thursday with Air of Entitlement and Bob Olinger, and when I was walking back and when I was leaving Cheltenham on Friday, it was the first time it came into my head: ‘God, will I be back next year?’ So that was the kind of first little spike of a thought I had.

“Then the summer rolled around, and it was May, and there was something about it. It just felt like the right time for me.

“I’ve no regrets about my decision. I had such an incredible career, and I feel so lucky that I got to have the success I had. I’m so lucky that the career I had is still giving me jobs now and still giving me purpose in the industry. But I do miss it.”

Rachael Blackmore was speaking ahead of the Cheltenham Festival – play different at this year’s festival with Betfair