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If the jockey doesn’t feel that there’s an obvious injury, then continuing to get the job finished is the way forward. Rachael was in the best position to make the quick decision required and she made the right one.
Marlingford if Rhyme and Reason had been pulled up in 87 id have prob never been bitten by the gambling bug ……still remember shouting him home while my Dad who was on Durham Edition stood in silence …. I’d have saved a fortune but lived a much duller life
Pick 3 on Saturday champion 2025/2026
PS in Blackmore we trust , shame we won’t see her at Cheltenham tomorrow
Pick 3 on Saturday champion 2025/2026
I agree Tank. Obviously Rachael needs to look after the horse, but she has to negotiate a tricky balancing act between that and doing the best she can in the race, as do all jockeys.
Sounds like you have much to be thankful to good old Rhyme N Reason for HDLG. He ran an amazing race that day.
Marlingford he certainly did , he would have to go in the dream stable , Grey Abbey is in the no 1 stable , no2 is empty awaiting Native River , no3 Lord Windermere , no4 Many Clouds , No5 Amberleigh house , no6 Ryhme and Reason , No7 Synchronised , No8 Al Co , No9 Brownhill lass , no10 Yorkshire blue …… I’ll be amazed if anyone on here know the last 2 but they earned there place in my stable
Pick 3 on Saturday champion 2025/2026
That is a fantastic list HDLG.
I don’t recall Yorkshire Blue, but do remember Brownhill Lass! I recall her as being a talented northern chaser from the late 80s and early 90s, and running in the the Greenall Whitley Gold Cup one year
It was interesting to hear the contrasting reactions on the two channels with ITV concentrating on Rachel’s heroics to stay in the saddle while on RTV Nick Luck talked mainly about the “unedifying spectacle” and put the jockey staying in the saddle down to a large dose of luck.
To be fair to ITV Ruby Walsh, on ITV, also said that he thought Rachael had a lot of luck in being able to stay in the saddle.
Looking at the other jockey in the race did anybody else get the impression that had his horse not got away from him Harry would have re-mounted.
It seems as though at the same time he is trying to catch his horse he is also looking over at Rachael to see if she has fallen.
Robert Goldie trained her , still remember her winning on channel 4 , Robert was a feed merchant and my dad bought off him for the farm , Yorkshire Blue was a handicapper for Jim Goldie , he was a average horse but God he looked after me inc a 204-1 forecast one wet day at Ayr , still remember the girl at the tote office telling me I was the only one who,d got that in on the course , Fieldsman does a similar thing for me , always seems to win at a huge price ….Fieldsman can have stable no11
Pick 3 on Saturday champion 2025/2026
Looking at the other jockey in the race did anybody else get the impression that had his horse not got away from him Harry would have re-mounted.
It seems as though at the same time he is trying to catch his horse he is also looking over at Rachael to see if she has fallen.
No. He ended up facing backwards/towards Rachel’s horse after the fall then looked for his horse to catch it to stop it from running loose if he could. He realised he couldn’t catch it from the left as he risked being run over by GoL or getting in her way, so he had to switch behind My Drogo, the horse set off and he realised he had no chance of catching it, even though it was only trotting, and stopped.
She (Rachael Blackmore) was advised that in similar circumstances she should take more time to assess the welfare of her mount.
In identical circumstances Blackmore has plenty of time to check out her mount because no other horse is coming from the rear to cloud the issue**.
Clouding the issue, in similar but not identical circumstances there are three horses in the race. One becomes well detached in the rear. The penultimate fence mayhem is as it was yesterday. Blackmore now has to decide whether to have a good look at her mount as per the Stewards’ advice, or whether to get the mare running as quickly as possible if, in her judgement, there’s still a chance to win the race from the slowly but relentlessly approaching third horse.
There are other situations where, as Marlingford has said, jockeys can be placed in an impossible position.
**On this point, I’m curious to know whether, on retaining control of the mare and having trotted her around, Rachael could have dismounted in order to better ascertain her mount’s welfare. All looking in order, could she have then remounted and finished the race. To put this another way, if a jockey’s feet touch the ground at any point and for any reason between start and finish is the horse automatically disqualified.
The BHA/Stewards were petty with their criticism. Instead they should have comgratulated her for a good piece of horsewomanship.
A case of if you’ve got nothing good to say, say nowt.- Total Posts 2553
I wouldn’t take too much notice of the..”She (Rachael Blackmore) was advised that in similar circumstances she should take more time to assess the welfare of her mount”
The Stewards have to state things like that nowadays to appease the handwringers
Yeats – Because you have been on TRF for over 20 years you must know that the Stewards are not allowed to criticise or praise (how lengthy and boring that would be); they give judgement on whether the rules have been broken. And occasionally advise a jockey just how close they came to breaking the rules. Rachael Blackmore was in an almost unique situation: she was the only one in the race who still had a chance of winning it. So she had plenty of time to test if her mount was OK to continue, she did not not need to rush her assessment. Just a bit of advice.
Tank – It is part of the Stewards’ jobs to take account of animal welfare, because it is part of the rules of racing. Although you might disagree with the rules, or disagree about Stewards becoming involved, or think that Stewards only take a view to appease a particular group of people who are interested in racing; but potentially libelling the Stewards about their motivation is hardly likely to be big winner for you. Name calling to try to win an argument usually abates at about eight years of age, any older than that most people realise it is just a distraction tactic when they do not have a logical or rational point to make.
MV – The BHA/Stewards are not averse to making lengthy and boring judgements. robnorth posted a good example on the Ascot farce thread.
Are you/they suggesting that as Blackmore was the only one with a chance of winning the race that she should take longer to assess her mount was OK to continue, than if there were other horses still in the race?
Surely the “advice” if required, should be the same no matter how many horses were still left in the race?
In what way should she further assessed whether her horse was fit to continue that she didn’t do? Dismount to have a look? How long should she have taken? How long did she have to finish before the judge left his box? It has been known for judges to leave their box prior to a horse finishing a race.
As the vet gave the horse the OK after the race the stewards advice and comments were unnecessary in my view.Rachael would have been disqualified if she dismounted as remounting is not permitted.
Seasider, I too wonder on your points (which the Rules of Racing seem to be very vague on). Dismounting and remounting do not seem to be defined anywhere. On ITV they seemed very concerned about whether either of Rachael’s feet had touched the ground as if this was the deciding factor. I’m none too sure if it is really as simple as that though. However, I’d suggest that deliberately getting off the horse and standing on the ground is inarguably dismounting, whatever the purpose.
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