Rachael Blackmore named Irish Times/Sport Ireland Sportswoman for February

There can’t have been too many busier sports people in the country these past few months than Rachael Blackmore. Come the end of Tuesday afternoon’s meeting in Clonmel she had brought her number of races this season to 476, more than any other jockey in Ireland. That her services are so in-demand gives a fair idea of her status in her sport.

She’s giving us an overwhelming sense of déjà vu, too. She won our February award last year after a hugely successful month that included winning the Irish Champion Hurdle on Honeysuckle. And she’s won the February 2021 award after a hugely successful month that included winning the Irish Champion Hurdle on Honeysuckle.

An emphatic 10-length triumph it was too at Leopardstown on the Henry de Bromhead-trained horse that gave Blackmore the third Cheltenham success of her career last year following her double in 2019 on A Plus Tard and Minella Indo, the latter her first Grade 1 victory at the Ffestival.

She’ll be aiming to add to that tally at Cheltenham next week where she is set to ride Honeysuckle, who is now unbeaten in 10 starts, in the Champion Hurdle and A Plus Tard in the big one, the Gold Cup. Victory in the Gold Cup, she said, would even top winning the Grand National.

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Meantime, the Tipperary woman is once again Paul Townend’s closest challenger in the jockeys’ championship, having finished runner-up to him two seasons ago and third last time around. Come Tuesday evening Townend was eight clear of Blackmore with 90 winners, the pair some distance clear of the jockey in third who is on 57 wins.

Blackmore’s stats for the season make for impressive reading, her 82 wins, eight of them coming in February, yielding prize money of just under a million, her total prize money over €1.5 million. Little wonder that she’s so busy.

Previous monthly winners (the awards run from December 2020 to November 2021, inclusive):

December: Aoife Doyle (Camogie) and Sinead Goldrick (Gaelic football). The pair were both chosen as the player of the match in their respective All Ireland finals, Doyle’s display in the Kilkenny attack helping her county end a run of three defeats in the final in a row, while an outstanding performance against Cork by Goldrick, currently playing for Melbourne FC in the Australian Football League, was a major factor in Dublin completing a four-in-a-row.

January: Nadia Power (Athletics). The 23-year-old Dubliner enjoyed an exceptional start to the year, smashing her 800m indoor personal best and setting two Irish records before Síofra Cléirigh-Buttner regained it. While she was disappointed not to reach the 800m final at the European Indoor Championships, her first senior championships, finishing fourth in her semi-final, Power says she has taken enough confidence from her form to send her in to the summer in high spirits - a summer, she hopes, that will include a trip to Tokyo.