Talking Horses: Blackmore bids to join all-time greats in Gold Cup

Minella Indo and Rachael Blackmore go back a long way at Cheltenham. Three years ago almost to the day, he was her breakthrough Grade One winner, an unconsidered 50-1 shot in what turned out to be one of the strongest novice hurdles of recent years. Allaho and Lisnagar Oscar, in third and fifth, were Grade One winners themselves at future Festivals, and Blackmore too soon moved on to even better things.

His Festival form figures are 1-2-1. He loves the track and thrives in the spring. And yet, for the second year running, when Minella Indo goes to post for the Cheltenham Gold Cup on Friday, Blackmore will be doing her utmost to beat him.

She failed 12 months ago, finishing one-and-a-quarter lengths behind Minella Indo after deciding to ride his stable companion, A Plus Tard, instead. It was one of those choices that come with the territory for an elite jockey attached to a major stable. Blackmore had ridden Minella Indo in his previous 10 races and A Plus Tard in 10 of his last 11 but still managed to pick the wrong one. At the end of an otherwise triumphant meeting, when her six winners made her the first female to finish the week as leading rider, the biggest prize of all was the one that got away.

A seventh success would have equalled Ruby Walsh’s all-time record for a single Festival. It would also have seen her arrive back at Cheltenham this week with a win in all three of the sport’s biggest races – the Gold Cup and Champion Hurdle at Cheltenham and the Grand National at Aintree – already in the bag.

As it is, the Festival’s showpiece is unfinished business for Blackmore, who was 29 and a veteran of nine seasons in the saddle when she rode her first Grade One winner in 2019 and has since racked up another 22. Long