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Surely Rachael has to be BBC Sports Personality of the Year after that.
But, needless to say, it’ll be Lewis Hamilton, a golfer or a footballer if England somehow win the European championship.
“The recipient must either be British or reside and play a significant amount of their sport in the United Kingdom.“
I would think she qualifies.
Ah sure she could move in next door to Kempton on Boxing Day and reside there for a week or so.
No way, the Dublin Festival is just too competitive to miss out. I mean seriously, does anyone bother with any of the Kempton races apart from the Paul Nicholls Stakes?
Yes. The Feltham, Christmas Hurdle, and King George, to name but three, are historic and presigious races Ruby. Plenty “bother” with them.
BUY THE SUN
Yay, racing on the front page of the non racing papers this morning for the right reason for a change!
Going to be an exclusive interview with Rachael any second now on BBC 1, 1 O’Clock news.
Value Is EverythingAn interesting take from Clare Balding
I think this point is a very good one:
To be leading jockey at Cheltenham and then win the Grand National, she’s exceptional. I hope what she does is give other female jockeys the chance to be in the game, because not all of them can be as good.
“Not all men can be as good as AP McCoy or Ruby Walsh, but they can make a living. Not every female jockey can be Rachael Blackmore, because she’s up there with AP and Ruby, she’s outstandingly good, she has a great racing brain.“Everyone says it proves it’s a meritocracy, but it doesn’t. It proves she’s outstanding and, given the opportunity, she’s better than everyone else. The next step is can you just be given the opportunity to be allowed to be mid-division, that’s equality. It’s the median; when you look down the standings in both jumps and Flat it is still striking how few women are there getting that consistency of opportunity where they have 500 rides a year.
I think she’s right there. If we get the occasional brilliant female jockey like Rachael and a good few more quite-good “journeywomen” jockeys who can make a living, enough that good young amateurs who want to turn pro feel that they have a realistic chance of getting enough outside rides to pay a modest mortgage, then that’s a good sign that equality of opportunity has been achieved.
Even if Bryony Frost never gets to be #1 stable jockey anywhere, she has achieved enough to keep getting put on Neil King’s horses, has formed a good working relationship with Lucy Wadham as well and picks up other rides outside Nicholls so that she can make a consistent living out of it so she’s another good role model.
Lizzie Kelly never quite make that breakthrough despite riding some big winners and helping to pave the way a bit more for women coming after her. She wasn’t Ruby-Walsh-brilliant, but she was decent enough and took the falls without complaining. I know nobody, male or female, has a god given right to rides and plenty of good male jockeys fall by the wayside too.
Ted Walsh was interviewed on Luck on Sunday on RTV and he said he did not see Rachael Blackmore’s win making much difference in the short term because there is no other female jockey in Ireland who is anywhere close in terms of ability and none who look like they are emerging through the ranks either.
I wonder what happened to Katie O’Farrell (sister of Connor O’Farrell I think). She won a couple of good handicaps for Willie Mullins then went to Nicholls last season to see if she could get more rides but doesn’t seem to have been given many and only had 9 rides (no winners)- all for other trainers- this season. It’s a pity cos I thought she was OK and I admired her for winning at the Galway Festival with a broken leg!
Perhaps Jody Townend could turn pro. She’s had a few wins and seems to be pretty capable.
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