The first female jockey to claim the Cheltenham Festival Leading Jockey title, including a Champion Hurdle win aboard Honeysuckle, Rachel Blackmore is the leading fancy for this year's BBC Sports Personality of the Year World Sport Star award. According to the Irish Independent, voting for the award opened on Monday at bbc.com and will close at 1:00 p.m. on Tuesday, Dec. 14.
The award will be presented during the BBC Sports Personality of the Year show live on BBC One on Sunday, Dec. 19.
Also in 2021, Blackmore became the first woman to ride the winner of the iconic Grand National with her success on Minella Times. Prior to Blackmore's win, the closest a female jockey had come to winning the world's most famous steeplechase race was Katie Walsh's third on Seabass in 2012.
In her post-race interview, Blackmore told the world: “I don't feel male or female right now, I don't even feel human. This is just unbelievable.”
Blackmore will be awarded the 2021 Irish Racing Hero Award at the annual Horse Racing Ireland Awards in December.
Other nominees for the 2021 BBC World Sport Star award include: boxing champion Saul 'Canelo' Alvarez, American football's Tom Brady, tennis' Novak Djokovic, five-time Olympic gold medal-winning sprinter Elaine Thompson-Herah, and Formula 1 driver Max Verstappen.
Read more at the Independent.
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