Last modified on Sun 14 Mar 2021 05.54 EDT
When Shark Hanlon booked Rachael Blackmore, a 21-year-old conditional without a winner under Rules to her name, to ride Stowaway Pearl in a handicap hurdle at Thurles in February 2011, he thought it best that she did not know there was more than just the prize money at stake.
“At the time, she wasn’t working for me,” Hanlon said this week. “It was [leading jockey] Davy Russell who recommended her.
“We were having a few quid on the horse that day and I didn’t want to tell her. I remember saying to her: ‘Listen, when you’re going across the top, kick and don’t look back.’ She came down to the last and she couldn’t resist, she had to have a little look back to see how far it was, and she was 15 lengths in front.”