Rachael Blackmore

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At the time of writing, Rachael Blackmore has only recently returned to the saddle, having recovered from a neck injury sustained in a fall at Downpatrick on September 20, 2024. Blackmore, 35, will always be best remembered as the first female jockey to win the Grand National, which she did on Minella Times, trained by Henry de Bromhead, in 2021, but has already rewritten the racing history books more than once in her pioneering career.

Born on July 11, 1989 in Killenaule, County Tipperary, Blackmore rode her first winner as a professional, Most Honourable, trained by John Joseph Hanlon, in handicap hurdle at Clonmel on September 3, 2015 and in the decade since has rarely looked back. In 2016/17, she became the first woman to win the Irish conditional jockeys’ title and rode out her claim on Sweet Home Chicago, trained by Colin Bowe, in a maiden hurdle at Wexford on June 21, 2017.

At the Cheltenham Festival, Blackmore rode her first winner, A Plus Tard, in the Centenary Novices’ Handicap Chase in 2019 and has since increased her career tally to 16 wins, notably including the Champion Hurdle, twice, on Honeysuckle (2021, 2022), the Cheltenham Gold Cup on A Plus Tard (2022) and the Queen Mother Champion Chase on Captain Guinness (2024).

Thus, she became the first woman to win each of those ‘feature’ races and, in 2021, when she rode a total of six winners, the first woman to win the leading jockey award at the Cheltenham Festival. The Stayers’ Hurdle is the notable omission from her CV, but she has also won the Ryanair Chase twice, on Allaho (2021) and Envoi Allen (2023). Remarkably, Blackmore is already sits in eleventh place on the all-time list at the Festival and, of jockeys still riding, only compatriot Paul Townend, with 34 winners, has achieved more success at the March showpiece meeting.

Fact To File

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For readers unfamiliar with the name, Fact To File is an eight-year-old gelding, owned by John McManus and trained by Willie Mullins, who was briefly promoted to favouritism for the 2025 Cheltenham Gold Cup after beating the reigning champion Galopin Des Champs, also trained by Mullins, into third place in the John Durkan Memorial Punchestown Chase on November 24, 2024. However, when the pair met again in the Savills Chase at Leopardstown on December 28, 2024, Galopin Des Champs not only reversed the Punchestown form to the tune of ten and a quarter lengths, but did so emphatically, making all the running and drawing clear on the run-in to win going away.

Nevertheless, despite that reverse, at the time of writing Fact To File remains a top-priced 4.1 second favourite for the 2025 Cheltenham Gold Cup. The son of Poliglote, who has still had only six starts over regulation fences, was a ready, three-and-three-quarter-length winner of the Broadway Novices’ Chase, over three miles and half a furlong, at the 2024 Cheltenham Festival and is currently outright 4/1 favourite for the 2025 Ryanair Chase, back over the intermediate distance o two miles and four and a half furlongs.

Fact To File is currently rated 170+ by Timeform, 9lb inferior to Galopin Des Champs, with the inference that he may be better yet. For all that Willie Mullins has said that “Galopin Des Champs wouldn’t be seen at his best” over the two-and-a-half-mile trip in the John Durkan, McManus certainly has an embarrassment of riches in the staying chasing division, with the likes of Fact To File, Spillane’s Tower and Inothwayurthnkin at his disposal. Tony Mullins, brother of Willie, has already said of Fact To File, “…J.P. [McManus] has never owned one like this and he’s owned a lot of good horses”, so it will be fascinating to see what the future holds for the young pretender.

Best Mate

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Two decades after suffering a fatal heart attack, as a ten-year-old, in the Haldon Gold Cup Chase at Exeter on November 1, 2005, Best Mate remains the co-thirteenth highest-rated steeplechaser in the history of Timeform. Of course, he is best remembered for winning the Cheltenham Gold Cup three years running, in 2002, 2003 and 2004, making him one of just three horses since World War II – the others being Cottage Rake and Arkle – to do so.

Owned by the late Jim Lewis, trained by Henrietta Knight at West Lockinge Farm, near Wantage, Oxfordshire and ridden, for all bar four of his races under Rules, by Jim Culloty, Best Mate won 14 of his 22 starts, including 11 of his 16 steeplechases, and amassed over £1 million in prize money. He was good enough to finish a never-nearer second, beaten just threequarters of a length, in the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival in 2000 and, having made a successful transition to fences, was ante-post favourite for the Arkle Challenge Trophy before an outbreak of foot and mouth disease caused the Festival to be rescheduled, and then abandoned altogether in 2001.

In 2002, Best Mate beat 17 opponents, including defending champion Looks Like Trouble, to win his first Cheltenham Gold Cup and returned to Prestbury Park the following year to become the first horse since L’Escargot, in 1971, to win the ‘Blue Riband’ event twice. In 2004, he duly completed the hat-trick, becoming the first horse since Arkle, in 1966, to do so, but was denied the chance of completing a four-timer when suffering a training injury just over a week before the 2005 renewal. Reflecting on his tragic death on his reappearance the following November, Jim Lewis said, “It’s been a privilege to own such a great horse. There have been very few as good…I will never forget him and what he did.”

Davy Russell

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Born in Youghal, County Cork on June 27, 1979, David Niall ‘Davy’ Russell retired from the saddle for the second and final time on April 15, 2023, Grand National Day, and will always be best remembered for winning back-to-back renewals of the world famous steeplechase on Tiger Roll, trained by Gordon Elliott, in 2018 and 2019. There was to be no fairytale ending to his Grand National career, though, as he was unseated from Galvin, also trained by Elliott, at the first fence on his final attempt. He had, however, won the Mersey Novices’ Hurdle on Irish Point, again trained by Ellliott, earlier in the day to take his career tally to 61 Grade 1 winners.

A successful amateur rider, with 133 point-to-point winners to his name, Russell joined Ferdy Murphy in Middleham, North Yorkshire in 2002 and rode his first winner as a professional, Inn Antique in a novices’ hurdle at Sedgefield, in November that year. He subsequently returned to Ireland to ride as a freelance jockey and between 2007 and 2013 was retained by Gigginstown House Stud. He became champion jockey in his native land three times, in 2011/12, 2012/13 and 2017/18.

As far as the Cheltenham Festival is concerned, Russell rode a total of 25 winners, starting with Native Jack, trained by Philip Rothwell, in what is now the Glenfarclas Cross Country Chase in 2006. Thereafter, he had the distinction of riding at least one Festival winner every year up to and including 2018.

He won the Pertemps Final and the Broadway Novices’ Chase three times apiece, on Mall Dini (2016), Presenting Percy (2017) and Delta Work (2018) and Weapons Amnesty (2010), Lord Windermere (2013) and Presenting Percy (2018), as well as the Triumph Hurdle on the aforementioned Tiger Roll (2014). His highest-profile Festival success came in a dramatic edition of the Cheltenham Gold Cup in 2014, when he guided Lord Windermere, trained by Jim Culloty, to a short-head victory over On His Own, trained by Willie Mullins, and survived a lengthy stewards’ inquiry.

Cheltenham Gold Cup

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As the most prestigious event in National Hunt racing, the Cheltenham Gold Cup requires little or no introduction. Established, in its modern guise – that is, as a steeplechase, run over three miles and two and a half furlongs on the New Course at Cheltenham – in 1959, the Cheltenham Gold Cup is, nowadays, the second most valuable jumps race run in Britain, behind only the Grand National.

Unlike the Grand National, the Cheltenham Gold Cup is a weight-for-age conditions race, in which horses aged six years and upwards carry 11st 10lb, five-year-olds carry 11st 6lb and mares receive a 7lb allowance. It is perhaps worth noting at this point that the last five-year-old to win the race was the legendary Golden Miller, who did so on his first attempt way back in 1932. Owned by the eccentric Dorothy Paget – who is worthy of an article in her own right – Golden Miller went on to win the Cheltenham Gold Cup again in 1933, 1934, 1935 and 1936 and remains the most successful horse in the history of the ‘Blue Riband’ event.

Of course, Golden Miller raced long before Timeform ratings for jump racing were first published in the early sixties, but it is no coincidence that 12 of the top 20 highest-rated steeplechasers of the Timeform era won the Cheltenham Gold Cup at least once. The roll of honour includes such luminary names as Arkle, Kauto Star, Mill House, Desert Orchid, Burrough Hill Lad and Long Run, to name but half a dozen.

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