09 March 2023 , 11:10
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Rachael Blackmore has confessed that mealtime during next week’s Cheltenham Festival will include a surprise order of Dominos.
The history-making jockey, the first female rider to win the Boodles Cheltenham Gold Cup, will bid to repeat last year’s success on A Plus Tard next Friday.
Blackmore, the BBC World Sports Personality of the Year in 2021 after a season which included a first victory in the Grand National, will also ride two-time Champion Hurdle winner Honeysuckle in what could be her final race in the Close Brothers’ Mares’ Hurdle.
While it will be a high pressure week the 33-year-old revealed she won’t go starving and will be able to indulge herself with a pizza delivery.
“I am so lucky that I can have a cheat meal every day if I want,” said Blackmore, who is a
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“ I don’t have to worry about my weight so I can eat whatever I like, I feel very fortunate in that sense! Next week will definitely include a Dominos take away one of the nights.”
Blackmore has ridden 12 Cheltenham Festival winners and says she will be ready for the extra scrutiny she will be under on Honeysuckle and A Plus Tard, neither of whom have been in their best form this season.
She said: “There is so much expectation going into a week like this but I think it is pressure that you want.
Rachael Blackmore won the 2022 Gold Cup on A Plus Tard (PA)"I want to feel it going into next week because that, in turn, means I have got some very good rides next week. It is pressure but it is, strangely, pressure that you crave and that you want. It just means that you are going to Cheltenham with some good rides
She went on: “The Gold Cup is what the whole week at Cheltenham builds up towards, it’s the biggest race of the week and a race that every jockey would love to win.
“Finishing second in it the year before, you think that could be the closest you ever get to a win in the Gold Cup.
“But to actually achieve it last year and be lucky enough to say I have now won the race will be a feeling I will never forget.”