Cheltenham Gold Cup and Grand National-winning rider Rachael Blackmore announced her retirement from the saddle in May but she won’t moving away from horse racing for good. She will be taking up a new role as Head of Ladies Day at the Cheltenham Festival as the track aim to attract more female racegoers.
The famous racecourse are reintroducing Ladies Day at the Festival, a concept they previously moved away from in 2019, with the hugely successful former jockey at the helm as they seek to expand their appeal to women.
Speaking about her new role, Blackmore said: “It is going to be a very different experience going racing and not heading for the weighing room, but I’m looking forward to seeing what race days are like from the other side of the rails and working with the team at Cheltenham.
“I’m interested in meeting racegoers to get a proper understanding of why they attend but also what some of the blockers and barriers might be that are stopping their friends and peers from coming.”
Announcing her retirement this year, the 36-year-old said: “My days of being a jockey have come to an end. 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.”
Prior to her Grand National triumph Blackmore had already become the first female jockey to win the Champion Hurdle aboard Honeysuckle that year and in 2022 she secured another first when steering A Plus Tard to win the Cheltenham Gold Cup. Blackmore rode her first winner as a professional in 2015 and bowed out with 18 Cheltenham Festival victories under her belt.
Away from the saddle and her professional life, Blackmore is in a relationship with fellow jockey Brian Hayes. The 37-year-old from Rosscarbery in Cork is a jockey for Willie Mullins and landed his first Cheltenham Festival winner in 2023 when Impervious landed the Mares’ Chase for trainer Colm Murphy.
When she announced her shock retirement, Blackmore paid tribute to her partner. She said: “To all my great friends – you made winning special. Brian Hayes won’t enjoy getting a mention, but he was more important to my career than I’ll ever be able to thank him for.”
The racing star was named both the 2021 RTE Sportsperson of the Year and was voted BBC Sports Personality World Sport Star of the Year for 2021.
Blackmore has previously spoken about living with the jockey. On Doireann Garrihy’s Laughs Of Your Life podcast in 2021, she said: “I live with two other jockeys, Patrick Mullins and Brian Hayes.
“I am going out with Brian Hayes, so there are three of us here. It is a great house to live in and it is in a really good location in Leighlinbridge in Carlow.”
The former jockey has previously shared snaps with Hayes in locations such as Wimbledon on her social media. Patrick Mullins previously spoke about the happy couple in an interview with the Guardian.
He said: “When I moved in with her and her boyfriend, Brian Hayes, myself and Brian would have been going racing most days. Rachael wasn’t. She used to do a lot of baking on those days – which was like her way of punching the wall.”