Grand National star Rachael Blackmore opens up on ‘special’ visits to Alder Hey Children’s Hospital… as she seeks to repeat 2021 triumph at Aintree

It was three weeks before Christmas when Rachael Blackmore quietly boarded a 7am flight from Dublin to Liverpool for appointment she couldn’t – and wouldn’t – miss.

Blackmore was out of action with a neck injury and her destination in Merseyside was a hospital but this had nothing to do with her own recuperation. This visit, to the world-renowned Alder Hey children’s facility, was to try to bring some cheer to those who desperately needed it.

She spent 90 minutes – along with Danny Mullins, flat jockeys Ross Coakley and Harry Davies, as well Sir Anthony McCoy, Mick Fitzgerald and Franny Norton – walking around the wards, listening to stories and trying to provide some comfort. By 1pm, she was up in the air and on the way home.

‘Our schedules are usually so busy that you never get chance to do something like that,’ Blackmore explains. ‘But Alder Hey is a special place. This is a place that no family ever wants to end up in; no kids want to be here but they make it as nice an environment as they can. They do incredible work.’

That is a statement with which there can be no contradiction. It explained why, 24 hours before the event that puts racing on a global stage, Blackmore was back with many of her colleagues on Friday, along with McCoy and Fitzgerald, for an event that has become a huge part of Grand National week.

It began in 2001 when McCoy and Fitzgerald were part of a delegation that headed away from Aintree one Friday morning to visit Alder Hey; over the years, the bond has become so strong that 20 members of the weighing room were in attendance.

The 35-year-old was back with many of her colleagues on Friday for Grand National week

She spent 90 minutes walking around the wards, listening to stories and trying to provide some comfort

None of them would begrudge us saying they were not the stars of the show – that title went to Neptune Collognes, the 2012 National winner, who has the placid temperament of a donkey on a beach and loved being fed polos by his many visitors who had come down from the wards.

Watching on, Blackmore smiled at the emotion of it all. She might have been feeling a little tender following a tumble from Willy De Houelle on Thursday but nothing was going to stop her attending, handing out some of her signed riding goggles to any of the children who wanted them.

‘I’ve been here for the last couple of years,’ she says. ‘This tradition of the jockeys coming to the hospital is special, it’s been going on for a long time – long before I was even riding. It’s a lovely thing to do. I came over before Christmas, I was out injured at the time so it was easy to do.

‘Even when you walk in through the front door, you’re not hit by a hospital feel, you know? They have some fantastic people working in and if we can help in a little way, by giving just a few minutes, we are delighted to do it.

‘It’s a unique connection between the hospital and the racecourse, we all know about it. The relationship that the jockeys have had has been there for a very long time. It’s very eye-opening walking around and it really does put a lot of things into perspective.’

Blackmore is used to hearing shouts of “Rachael! Rachael!” on course but it gets multiplied at Aintree, given that boundary-shattering triumph on Minella Times she orchestrated in 2021. The course might have been empty, due to the pandemic, but she knew a city was behind her.

When she has ridden winners at Aintree in the years since, the clamour from well-wishers is enormous and she smiled broadly when reminded of the scenes in 2023 when she partnered Inthepocket for JP McManus to win the Mersey Novices Hurdle.

Liverpool will forever be a city that embraces athletes and the pride it takes in staging the Grand National, which has flourished under the sponsorship of Randox, is colossal; critics may question whether the race is the same as it used to be but it really is about so much more than horses.

Blackmore is due to ride Minella Indo on Saturday as she attempts to add to her success at Aintree four years ago

‘I love Liverpool, I really do,’ Blackmore said and her sentiment was sincere. ‘It’s a fantastic place, the people are brilliant. I do, in a very small way, feel a part of it all here. Everyone in Liverpool embraces the race and it’s just great to be on the roll of honour, to have that little part of history.

‘There is a lot of passion here. They love their racing, it’s a special little place that’s for sure. It’s great to come back here every year and doing this is a honour. If we are able to give someone a distraction, to forget about the problems for by talking about a horse or the Grand National for two minutes.’

The main topic of conversation, in those precious moments of distraction, revolved around who would win this afternoon’s renewal, in which Blackmore will ride her old friend, Minella Indo, for her boss Henry de Bromhead once again.

De Bromhead loves this horse’s character, particularly the fact that he will start prowling around his box and kick the stable door like an angry fighter getting ready for battle; he’s an elder statesman now and while he may have to give way to younger legs, Blackmore is guaranteed a thrilling spin.

‘Minella Indo has only run twice since last year’s Grand National, but Henry is training him so that he will reach his peak again on Grand National day,’ said the Betfair ambassador, who thought for a few strides 12 months ago that she might get the better of I Am Maximus.

‘He’s 12 years old now, but I rode him work there the other day, and he didn’t work like a 12-year-old. He’s a Gold Cup winner and he retains lots of his ability and all of his enthusiasm, and I’m hoping for a really big run from him again.’

She will, undoubtedly, carry the best wishes of a city on Saturday. The best result, however, had come 24 hours earlier.