What A Year. What a Racing Yearbook.

More and More – glass ceilings never stood a chance with Rachael Blackmore

€1500 worth of FREE admission tickets to nearly 80 race meetings

Some play the game, some change it. March 2021 was the first Cheltenham in 20 years that there wasn’t the usual gang of champs in the weigh room. Geraghty had joined Walsh, McCoy and Carberry on the other side of the curtain, while Russell was recovering from serious injury sustained the previous autumn. Johnson was still pulling on his silks but the end was nigh.The stage upon which we create our stories for the future had room aplenty on it for new players. Rachael Blackmore began to fill the void.
Not since Sarah Connors in Terminator or Ellen Ripley in Alien has a woman controlled the chaos around her so completely.
Blackmore won six races over the four days, a score only ever bettered by Ruby Walsh, to take home the leading jockey award. Interesting to note that without the Elliott episode, two of the six would have been Jack Kennedy’s rides. When the ball is bouncing your way, anything is possible. Four falls peppered the days too, but only those who have gone over the edge know where it truly lies.
She won the Champion Hurdle with the unbeaten queen Honeysuckle, showing complete conviction everywhere but nowhere more so than down to the last flight. Bob Olinger was steered home with clinical precision in the Ballymore, keeping the race tight around the home bend. Allaho galloped his rivals into submission in the Ryanair with a relentless performance whereas Sir Gerhard was allowed set steady fractions from the front in the Champion Bumper before sprinting up the hill. Quilixios received a textbook steer to triumph in the Triumph and Telmesomethinggirl got a Carberryesque hold up ride to come from the clouds in the Mares’ Novice.
A complete collection of race-winning rides. Front, middle, rear. Inner, middle, wide. Bumper, hurdle, chase. It left the watching masses wonderstruck.
A week for the ages. A week that will be reminisced about late into this century.
Irish Racing Yearbook 2022 is the definitive, established Irish racing annual, a collaboration of the best writers and photographers with the leading protagonists of racing, detailing some incredible stories throughout the entire spectrum of the industry, from breeding to sales to point-to-point to the racetrack.
Rachael Blackmore is our lead interview as a result of her historic year, the first woman to ride the winner of the Grand National at Aintree, courtesy of an ice-cold display of navigation on Minella Times.
That came just a few weeks after booting home six winners at Cheltenham, a tally only ever bettered by Ruby Walsh, and which included another piece of history in becoming to first female jockey to win a championship race at the Festival, the Champion Hurdle on People’s (Equine) Champion, Honeysuckle.
Housemate Patrick Mullins (also champion QR jockey, assistant trainer to his father Willie and gifted wordsmith) poses the questions and elicits some wonderful insights.
Henry de Bromhead, Colin Keane, Denise Foster, Joseph O’Brien, Paul Townend, Richie Condon, Jim Bolger, John Nallen, Ben Coen, Noel Meade, Gavin Cromwell, Jessica Harrington, Siobhan Rutledge, David Loughnane, Rory Cleary, Gary Carroll, Shane Foley, Stuart Crawford and Barry Mahon are some of the others that are interviewed and featured by an array of stellar writing talents.
Irish Racing Yearbook 2022 also includes in-depth analysis of the bloodstock industry, crunching the sales and stallion numbers and looking at some of the key events that could shape the sector in the future.
And that is not to forget the €1500 worth of FREE admission to nearly 80 meetings in Ireland, in essence offering the purchase price back more than 50 times to buyers, as well as the half-price offer for an annual subscription to Racing TV.

A further taste
“People will never realise the mental stuff that I went through – the torment. Knowing that I’ve been accused so badly in the wrong” – Richie Condon

“When we have a good horse that we think can compete at a good level internationally, we’re always keen to try and do that” – Joseph O’Brien

“The first day we put reins on him on the gallop, he got away. He was going 40 minutes and we couldn’t catch him” – John Nallen on Minella Indo

Irish Racing Yearbook 2021 (€28.75/£25.75) is on sale now in all good newsagents and bookshops and can be ordered online (www.irishracingyearbook.com) or by phone (+353 85 7280169).