20 April 3, 2022The Sunday TimesRacing
There was a huge
juxtaposition between an
excellent article by David
Walsh on head trauma in
rugby and American football
(Sport, March 27) and a photo
on the next page of a
featherweight getting an
absolute battering. Surely a
campaigning paper like the
Sunday Times wouldn’t let
boxing off the hook?
Gavin Howard, CambridgeI have some advice for Eddie
Jones. Go and watch the
England women play. They
seemingly play a different
game from the men where
they pass the ball, catch and
run with it. Our overcoached
men keep kicking the ball
needlessly away. Quite often
it is because they have run
out of ideas.
Rugby is a game of
possession and the ball is tobe treasured, it is not a ‘ticking
time bomb’. Win or lose the
World Cup, Eddie Jones will go
and perhaps the ineffective lot
that pick the coaches will offer
Shaun Edwards anything he
wants and beg Clive
Woodward to return.
Tim Blewitt, Goring-by-SeaIf the clubs involved in the two
FA Cup semi-finals are truly
concerned about their fansinability to travel, why don’t
both teams advise the FA that
they will play at a local venue,
NOT Wembley. Or are they like
the FA, fans are not as
important as money?
John Senior, TaplowAs the father of a boy who
loves playing rugby, last
week’s article about the death
of Ben Robinson brought tears
to my eyes.It’s a tragedy that should
not have happened. Ben
should never have still been
on the pitch at the time of the
final blow.
I hope that this could never
occur again at any level of
rugby, given that the
seriousness of concussion
injuries is now hopefully better
understood. My thoughts are
with Ben’s family.
Mike Conn, via emailLETTERS
TO THEEDITOR
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email: sportletters
@sunday-times.co.ukT
here is a pivotal point in the
2021 Randox Grand
National, after the horses
have crossed the Melling
Road and have just
embarked on their second
circuit. Minella Times is one
of several horses still travel-
ling well with his rider, Rachael Black-
more, still motionless in the saddle.
Just in front of Minella Times, Lord
Du Mesnil jumps a little to his left as
they cross the next fence. He does not
hamper Minella Times but he does
move across in front of him. Nick
Scholfield is giving Lord Du Mesnil a
squeeze. The horse is not travelling
too well and if you can read these
things, you can tell that he is probably
not going to be able to maintain his
prominent position for much longer.
Blackmore takes a little look over
her right shoulder; there is nothing
immediately behind her, so she moves
Minella Times a little to the right, out
of Lord Du Mesnil’s slipstream.
By the time they get to the next
fence, Lord Du Mesnil is tiring, start-
ing to drop back through the field. By
then Minella Times has left him in his
wake with an economy of effort.
Still in his rhythm, still travelling
smoothly, and still, although nobody
knew it at the time, on his way into the
history books.
There are many qualities that set
Blackmore apart as one of the best
National Hunt jockeys of her genera-
tion, and one of them was encapsu-
lated in that moment. In the biggest
race in the world, under the gaze of
millions, you ride your horse, but you
also ride the race.
Your razor-sharp awareness allows
you to see what is happening around
you, every instant. You assimilate it all
in real time and act accordingly, all the
while conserving energy. Keeping
everything smooth. If you jam on the
brakes and then put the accelerator to
the floor, you are using energy that
you will probably need towards the
end of 4¼ miles.
Even before she won the Grand
National last year, though, Blackmore
was box office. Six winners at the
Cheltenham Festival, and the leading
rider award, will do that. If she was
the best-kept Irish secret before
Cheltenham 2021, she blew that out of
the water in four remarkable days.
After the retirements of AP McCoy
and Ruby Walsh, National Hunt racing
needed a jockey who would enjoy
traction with the wider public.
Blackmore was that jockey.
We saw a range of her talents, her
tactical nous and versatility, at the
2021 Cheltenham Festival. From theDONN
McCLEANfront on Allaho in the Ryanair Chase,
getting her horse into his racing
rhythm early and letting him roll.
From the rear on Telmesomethinggirl
in the Mares’ Novices’ Hurdle, allow-
ing her to settle and delivering her
late. Stacking them up on Sir Gerhard
in the Champion Bumper and on
Quilixios in the Triumph Hurdle, and
kicking at the right time, with enough
in reserve to get up the hill.
And Honeysuckle. Just allowing
Honeysuckle to do what you know she
always does, absolute confidence in
her horse, 15 times together now and
15 wins.
In the trainer Henry de Bromhead,
Blackmore has the perfect accom-
plice. They seem to share common
traits: humble in victory, gracious in
defeat. But underpinning everything
for both is a steely determination, a
will to win, with a depth of thought
and a methodology in place to
maximise the chances of success.Blackmore arrives at
Aintree after victories in
the Gold Cup, above, and
Champion Hurdle, right,
at CheltenhamThe falls and unseatings do not
make the headlines, of course, but
they are inevitable if you ride horses
over obstacles for a living: Plan Of
Attack, Balko Des Flos and Eklat De
Rire at Cheltenham last year. She had
a tough-looking fall off Embittered in
the Grand Annual, the second-last
race on the Wednesday, then went out
on Sir Gerhard and won the last.
At the 2022 Cheltenham Festival
last month, Blackmore and Telmeso-
methinggirl were brought down when
travelling well at the second-last flight
in the Mares’ Hurdle. You winced as
she hit the ground and, literally,
bounced up into the air as hooves
pounded around her. Half an hour
later she was back in the saddle for the
Fred Winter Hurdle.
As well as her physical toughness,
there is an emotional strength about
Blackmore, a mental resolve. If there
was one pebble in her shoe as she
walked out of Cheltenham in 2021, theSEB DALY/SPORTSFILE; TIMES PHOTOGRAPHER MARC ASPLANDleading rider with six winners, it was
that she had not won the Gold Cup.
She finished second on A Plus Tard, a
length and a quarter behind Minella
Indo, also trained by de Bromhead,
whom she could have chosen to ride.
You knew that it was on her mind
over the next 12 months, maybe
sporadically, maybe during quiet
moments. And you knew that she
thought deeply about how she would
address that anomaly this year. That is
what winners do. What she did last
time had not worked, so she would do
it differently this time.
She was patient on A Plus Tard in
this year’s Gold Cup, waiting in behind
horses, and waiting again. Then,
when she could wait no longer, she
asked her horse for his effort and
he delivered that turn of foot that
his rider knew he possessed. A
Plus Tard cut loose up Chelten-
ham’s punishing incline, put-
ting 15 lengths between himself
and his rivals by the time he
got to the winning line — the
widest winning margin in a
Gold Cup in almost 30 years.
Blackmore has piled up the
firsts: first woman to turn profes-
sional in Ireland since the 1980s,
first woman to win the conditional
riders’ championship, first female
jockey to win the Gold Cup, first
female jockey to win the Grand
National. But Blackmore does not
need any sizzle, because she is all
substance. Twenty-five grade one
wins on the board, and the first jockey
to win the Champion Hurdle and the
Gold Cup in the same year since
McCoy in 1997.
On Saturday at Aintree, Blackmore
and Minella Times will attempt to win
the Grand National again. It will not be
easy, as odds of 16-1 show.
JP McManus’s horse is 15lb higher in
the handicap than he was when they
won it last year, and Tiger Roll is the
only horse since Red Rum in 1973 and
1974 to win back-to-back renewals of
the Grand National.
That said, de Bromhead reported
him to be in tremendous form last
week, and you know that he will be
primed for Saturday’s race.
You also know that he will get all
the assistance that he needs from
his rider.TOUCHING
GREATNESS
Rachael Blackmore’s feats have elevated her to a level
that transcends racing. Now Aintree awaits again...
2
Back-to-back
Grand National
winners since
1970s: Red Rum
and Tiger Rolland Tiger RollBlackmore and
de Bromhead are
humble in victory,
gracious in defeat.
But they are winnersON TV SATURDAY
The Grand National
ITV, 5.15pm