Rachel Blackmore Returns to Cheltenham, Balancing Baby Joy and Farewell
rachel blackmore will be back at the Cheltenham Festival this week not as a rider but in a public role after hanging up her stirrups last May; she married jockey Brian Hayes, 37, and the couple announced they are expecting their first baby last month (feb). Her presence at Prestbury Park as the face and Head of Ladies’ Day reveals how a career-ending decision has shifted her role from competitor to ambassador for the meet.
Rachel Blackmore at Cheltenham
She will attend the four-day Cheltenham Festival at Prestbury Park later today, having retired from race riding in May. The pattern suggests the festival will treat her return as a continuity moment: her record of 18 Festival winners and history-making victories, including being the first and only woman to win the Cheltenham Gold Cup and Aintree’s Grand National, give weight to her new role and draw attention despite no longer riding.
Rachael Blackmore’s family news
Blackmore married long-term partner Brian Hayes, 37, and the couple announced a pregnancy last month (feb). She has said parts of returning to Cheltenham without riding will be difficult and could bring her to tears, and those comments underscore a personal transition from daily routines in the weighing room to public appearances; the figures — 18 big Festival winners and a career that was ended in May — explain why she expects an emotional reaction.
Cheltenham Festival accumulator picks
Even while retired, rachel blackmore remains influential: she named four horses she thinks will win at the Festival — Majborough, Fact To File, Bob Olinger and The New Lion — and those selections combine to form a 70-1 accumulator as priced at the time of commentary. The figures point to how her opinions still shape festival narratives and betting interest, especially given Bob Olinger has accounted for three of her Festival wins and Fact To File is favoured in the Irish Gold Cup this season.
She also highlighted the Gold Cup picture, naming Envoi Allen as a big each-way proposition because of the trainer Henry de Bromhead factor and form at home, and called Majborough a Champion Chase pick for Wednesday. That detail reveals two threads: Blackmore’s festival focus remains tactical and horse-specific, and her selections reinforce her continued standing among trainers and punters despite retirement.
One account states she called time on her career in May last year at the age of 35, while another reference in coverage lists her as 36; both facts underline the rapid life changes she has undergone between retiring and returning to Cheltenham in a non-riding capacity. The juxtaposition of marriage, an announced pregnancy and an honorary festival role shows how a leading jockey’s public identity can shift quickly once riding stops.
The four-day Cheltenham Festival gets underway at Prestbury Park later today, and that event is the next confirmed milestone in this story; if her role as Head of Ladies’ Day sustains public engagement, the available evidence suggests she will remain a central figure at the meeting even without a saddle on race day.
