Rachael chases glorious repeat after riding to racing's rescue

Fight to retain title that galvanised sport

- Matt Majendie

AT last year's Cheltenham Festival, the stands stood empty as racegoers and owners were banned from attending amid the Covid pandemic.

Horse racing was in the mire, Irish trainer Gordon Elliot having just been banned for six months following the emergence of a picture of him sitting on a dead horse while taking a phone call.

Twelve months had passed from a Festival that had been heavily criticized for its packed stands in the early days of Covid. As such, the event - and the sport more widely – was crying out for any possible positive headlines it could muster.

In just four days, the Festival – or more pertinently Rachael Blackmore - went on to change the face of racing. As ITV Racing host Ed Chamberlin put it perfectly at the time, she had "ridden to racing's rescue”.

In a flash, horse racing was front- and back-page news, this time for all the right reasons.

Blackmore became the first female jockey to win the Champion Hurdle on Honeysuckle on an opening day and then the first to be crowned champion jockey at the Festival with her six victories.

Only Ruby Walsh, with seven, has ever ridden more at a single Festival and those six Blackmore wins were more than the entire British-trained contingent combined. The 32-year-old from Tipperary was virtually faultless. In fact, her only mistake was over selection for the Gold Cup, opting for A Plus Tard over Minella Indo, which pipped her mount to the big win.