Rachael Blackmore to return to competitive action on Saturday

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2021 Grand National winning jockey Rachael Blackmore has been out of action since July, however she has now recovered from her hip injury and fractured ankle and will make a return to competitive action on Saturday afternoon at Galway. 

This will be the first ride for the Grand National-winning jockey since she sustained a hip injury as well as a fractured ankle in a bad fall in a Killarney hurdle race on 16th July aboard Merry Poppins. For her return to competitive action, Henry de Bromhead will be giving Blackmore the leg-up on Balko Des Flos in the W.B.Gavin & Co. Handicap Hurdle, this being the horse she beat into second place at Aintree.

Blackmore enjoyed a landmark campaign last season when she became the first ever female jockey to win the Grand National at Aintree and she was leading rider at the Cheltenham Festival just a few weeks previous to her Aintree success, riding six winners over the four days of the prestigious meeting. This thoroughly impressive haul included an amazing five Grade Ones, the undoubted highlight being Honeysuckle in the Champion Hurdle. The bar was then raised with her Grand National success in which she won on Minella Times by six-and-a-half lengths.

Regarding her recovery and her eagerly-anticipated return to the saddle in competitive action, Blackmore said: “The recovery has gone really well and the doctors are all happy with my progress. It’s part and parcel of our job, unfortunately. I’m just glad it didn’t happen in April or March.”

 

Blackmore has been watching from the sidelines since July