Tag: female jockey

Irish Jockey Rachel Blackmore Voted BBC’s World Sport Star Of The Year

Irish jockey Rachael Blackmore has been voted BBC Sports Personality's World Sport Star of the Year for 2021.

The 32-year-old became the first female rider to win the Grand National at Aintree with victory on 11-1 chance Minella Times in April. No other woman had ever finished in the first two of the famous steeplechase.

Blackmore also became the first woman to be leading jockey at the Cheltenham Festival in March, where she racked up six victories.

She said receiving the World Sport Star award was “unbelievable”.

“The support has been incredible. I got such a kick out of being on that list of nominees. This is just incredible,” she added.

“My dreams were so big, but [this year] far surpassed anything I could have ever imagined.

“The reaction has been brilliant, I feel very privileged to have had the year I've had.”

The previous best by a female rider in the National was Katie Walsh's third place finish in 2012. Women were not permitted to ride in the race until 1977, and in total, only 19 female jockeys have competed.

Topping an online public vote, Blackmore beat off competition from Mexican boxer Saul 'Canelo' Alvarez, American football quarterback Tom Brady, Serbia's world number one tennis player Novak Djokovic, Jamaican sprinter Elaine Thompson-Herah, and Dutch Formula 1 world champion Max Verstappen.

The 2020 winner of the award was Russian UFC fighter Khabib Nurmagomedov.

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Rachel Blackmore To Contend For BBC SPOTY World Sport Star Award

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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‘Fallen A Long Way Short’? BHA’s Jockey Bullying Case Could Have Wide-Ranging Consequences

Tuesday starts the British Horseracing Authority's hearing into the weighing room bullying case brought by female jockey Bryony Frost against male rider Robbie Dunne. Racing broadcaster Nick Luck welcomed Daily Mirror journalist David Yates to his podcast, Nick Luck Daily, to discuss how this case could affect both the BHA and the industry as a whole, as well as the two jockeys.

Frost has been adamant that her reasoning for bringing this case is not a personal vendetta but rather a desire to change the weighing room culture for the generation that follows hers.

“If this case doesn't succeed, you can make your own judgement as to whether that culture is indeed going to change,” Yates said.

Dunne, who has been charged with three counts of alleged abusive or threatening behavior, faces a punishment ranging up to a three-year ban from the sport. Yates points out that since Dunne is 36 years old, that could effectively mean the end of his career.

As for the BHA, the way in which it has dealt with this case will be “held up to the light.” With leaks to the Sunday Times and the lengthy amount of time the process has taken, Yates suggests the organization will likely face judgement on its competency.

Perhaps the most wide-ranging consequences of this hearing are those that would touch the industry as a whole.

“Racing has quite rightly made much capital out of the fact that men and women in the sport compete on equal terms,” said Yates. “It rightly points out the progress that it feels has been made in leveling out what I think we would all agree was a very unlevel playing field to start off with. It's not just people who are interested in racing who are looking at this case. Again, it's very likely that were this case to show that there is a culture of bullying in the weighing room, for horse racing, all the work it's tried to do to level up between the genders over the last decade or so, it would be seen I think publicly that a lot of that work had either been undone or had fallen a long way short.”

Listen to the entire discussion on Nick Luck Daily.

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Hitomi Miyashita Is Japan’s First Female Jockey To 1,000 Wins

Jockey Hitomi Miyashita became the first Japanese female to hit the 1,000-win milestone this week, reports the Japan Times. She won with Real Speed at Nagoya Racecourse on Thursday, Nov. 18.

The 44-year-old has been riding races since 1995, but walked away in 2011 to give birth to her two children.

Miyashita returned in 2016, the first female jockey to return to the saddle after childbirth.

In 2020, she became Japan's first female jockey to win 100 races in a single season.

The Japan Racing Association reports that only 93 active Japanese jockeys have achieved 1,000 wins.

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