Rachael Blackmore has announced her retirement following a groundbreaking 16-year career in which she became the first female jockey to win the Aintree Grand National and the Cheltenham Gold Cup.

Since riding her first winner at Thurles in 2011, the Tipperary native has blazed a trail in the horse racing world, achieving astonishing success in a sport that only first allowed women in 1973.

Blackmore was named champion conditional rider in 2017, the first of many landmark moments in her career, and she had a first Cheltenham winner two years later with A Plus Tard as well as her first Grade One winner at the same festival.

During her breakout 2021 season, Blackmore was the leading jockey at Cheltenham, riding six winners at the showpiece festival, before sealing the Grand National aboard Minella Times in front of empty stands at Aintree but an estimated global audience of 500m.

She was later named RTÉ Sports Person of the Year and BBC World Sport Star of the Year for her achievements before becoming the first woman to win the Cheltenham Gold Cup in 2022.

In all, Blackmore had 575 winners over obstacles and on the flat, the last of which was Ma Belle Etoile, trained by Henry de Bromhead, at Cork on Saturday in what was a characteristically low-key ended to a pioneering career for the 35-year-old.

Announcing her retirement on social media, Blackmore said: "My days of being a jockey have come to an end.

"I feel the time is right. I'm sad but I'm also incredibly grateful for what my has been for the past 16 years. I just feel so lucky, to have legged up on the horses I have, and to have experienced success I never even dreamt could be possible."

In her statement, she thanked her parents, supporters, sponsors, fellow jockeys, medical professionals, owners and trainers, including John 'Shark' Hanlon and de Bromhead, with whom she enjoyed many of her greatest successes.

"A conversation between Eddie O'Leary and Henry de Bromhead in a taxi on the way to Aintree took my career to a whole new level. Eddie got me in the door at Knockeen, and what came next was unimaginable: Honeysuck;e, A Plus Tard, Minella Indo, Captain Guinness, Bob Olinger, Minella Times, among many others ... all with one thing in common -- Henry de Bromhead.

"He's a phenomenal trainer, who brought out the best in me. Without Henry, my story is very different."

Blackmore has yet to say what she plans to do next, but wrote: "It is daunting, not being able to say that I am a jockey any more.

"But I feel so incredibly luck to have had the career I've had.

"To have been in the right place at the right time with the right people, and to have gotten on the right horses - because it doesn't matter how good you are without them.

"They have given me the best days of my life and to them I am most grateful."

During her career, Blackmore took part in 4,566 races, winning 575. She is estimated to have earned about €11m in prize money, according to At the Races. Jockeys on average earn about 10% of the win prize, per the Professional Jockeys Association.

Her company, Rachael Blackmore Racing, had cash reserves of approximately €895,000 at the end of 2022 before it was re-registered as an unlimited company, having made accumulated profits of €974,000.

Over the years, Blackmore has counted KPMG, Dornan Engineering, Volvo, Betfair and PCI Insurance among her sponsors, and she recently published her first children's book, Granny National.

Photo: Rachael Blackmore after winning The Paddy Power Stayers' Hurdle at the 2025 Cheltenham Festival. (Pic: Alan Crowhurst/Getty Images)