{"id":165428,"date":"2025-11-29T04:34:08","date_gmt":"2025-11-29T04:34:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/165428\/"},"modified":"2025-11-29T04:34:08","modified_gmt":"2025-11-29T04:34:08","slug":"inside-rachael-blackmores-life-with-partner-brian-hayes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/165428\/","title":{"rendered":"Inside Rachael Blackmore’s life with partner Brian Hayes"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rachael Blackmore is a household name in sport, but after years at the top of her game, the Gold Cup and Grand National-winning jockey has retired.<\/p>\n

The Irish jockey announced she was retiring in May and gave a special mention to her partner, fellow jockey Brian Hayes. She stated, ‘Brian Hayes won’t enjoy getting a mention, but he was more important to my career than I’ll ever be able to thank him for.’<\/p>\n

Here’s everything we know about 36-year-old Rachael as she does a very important job on the Late Late<\/a> on Friday:<\/p>\n

Relationship<\/p>\n

\"JockeyJockey Rachael Blackmore, aboard Bob Olinger, celebrates after winning the Paddy Power Stayers’ Hurdle on day three of the Cheltenham Racing Festival. Photo by Harry Murphy\/Sportsfile<\/p>\n

During her 2021 appearance on Doireann Garrihy’s Laughs Of Your Life podcast, she said: ‘I live with two other jockeys, Patrick Mullins and Brian Hayes.<\/p>\n

‘I am going out with Brian Hayes, so there are three of us here. It is a great house to live in and it is in a really good location in Leighlinbridge in Carlow.’<\/p>\n

\"RachaelRachael Blackmore and Brian Hayes. Pic: Rachael Blackmore\/Instagram<\/p>\n

It is close to all the race tracks in Ireland,’ she continued. ‘We don’t talk about racing half as much as people might think. It is just a normal house when we come home.’<\/p>\n

Family life<\/p>\n

\"BrianBrian Hayes and Rachael Blackmore. Pic: Rachael Blackmore\/Instagram<\/p>\n

Rachael was born to her mum Eimir, a teacher, and her dad Charles, a farmer, on July 11, 1989.<\/p>\n

She grew up on a dairy farm in Killenaule, Co Tipperary and developed a gr\u00e1 for horses. She started riding ponies when she was a mere two years of age.<\/p>\n

As a child she took part in pony club meetings, hunting, eventing and pony racing. Then when she grew she had strong ambitions and graduated from the University of Limerick with a degree in equine science.<\/p>\n

All while riding out and competing as an amateur jockey, might we add!<\/p>\n

Career<\/p>\n

\"RachaelRachael Blackmore has written a children’s book.
Pic: Rachael Blackmore\/Instagram <\/p>\n

Rachael always had aspirations of becoming an amateur jockey and training to become a vet, but in an interview with the Irish Times<\/a>, she admitted she knew she’d struggle to get the points as she suffers from dyslexia.<\/p>\n

‘I was never going to get anywhere close to the points needed. I wasn’t academic. I was dyslexic. I wish I was better in school,’ she said.<\/p>\n

It was in 2011 when Rachael started making waves with her win at the Tipperary Ladies\u2019 Handicap Hurdle.<\/p>\n

\"RachaelRachael Blackmore. Pic: Dave Shopland\/REX\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n

In 2019, she landed her first Grade One win \u2014 riding Minella Indo at 50-1 odds in the Albert Bartlett Novice Hurdle, no less.<\/p>\n

\u2018To me, this was never even a dream,\u2019 she said of her Champion Hurdle win at Cheltenham. \u2018It was so far from what I ever thought could happen in my life. Absolutely incredible. I am speechless, to be honest, I really am.\u2019<\/p>\n

Speaking of Rachael becoming the first woman to take home the Top Jockey Award Ruby Walsh said: ‘I think the wider world will see her now as what she wants to be – just a jockey.’<\/p>\n

\"RachaelRachael Blackmore. Pic: Dave Shopland\/REX\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n

She wrote her name into the history books once again in January 2025, becoming the first female rider to win the Goffs Thyestes Chase<\/a>. What a feat!<\/p>\n

In March 2025, Rachael had an emotional victory at Cheltenham when she dedicated her win to her cousin Robert<\/a> on the day of his funeral.<\/p>\n

Though she’s still triumphant in the sporting world, the jockey has started branching out and recently revealed she had written her own children’s book<\/a>, titled Granny National, which was ‘three years in the making’.<\/p>\n

Life in retirement<\/p>\n

\"TrailblazingTrailblazing jockey Rachael Blackmore has been unveiled as the new face of FBD Hotels & Resorts. Pic: Andres Poveda<\/p>\n

Rachael might be retired, but she’s not taking it easy by any means! She’s been keeping busy with brand deals, partnerships<\/a>, and trying new things.<\/p>\n

Chatting with EVOKE in August<\/a>, Rachael said she’s particularly savouring having the time to catch up with friends.<\/p>\n

As for how her loved-ones are adjusting to her being around more now she\u2019s retired, Rachael laughed and said: \u2018My parents, my dad is a farmer, so I\u2019ve been hanging a bit more around home, and I think I\u2019ve just been annoying him more than anything else, so he\u2019d probably like it if I went back riding! <\/p>\n

‘But I\u2019ve lots of time now to do things like that and meet up with friends, and I\u2019m able to go to things. That\u2019s been the main core of my summer, catching up with everyone. It\u2019s such a change, you go from being so busy racing, to overnight just having this time to say yes to things\u2026 It\u2019s a massive change.’<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rachael Blackmore is a household name in sport, but after years at the top of her game, the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":165429,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[321,93,61,60],"class_list":["post-165428","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165428","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=165428"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165428\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/165429"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=165428"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=165428"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=165428"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}