Trailblazing jockey Rachael Blackmore has taken the Cheltenham Festival by storm - and today bids to become the first jockey in 26 years to win both the Champion Hurdle and Gold Cup in the same year.
The Irish superstar made racing history as she became the first female jockey to win the Champion Hurdle with an emphatic victory onboard star mare Honeysuckle on Tuesday.
The following day, she expertly steered Bob Olinger to win the Ballymore Novices' Hurdle in style to get day two of the festival off to a flying start.
Going into the festival on Thursday, she continued her dominance, with a runaway triumph on Allaho in the Ryanair Chase and doubled up for the day after Telmesomethinggirl romped home to win the Mares' Novice Hurdle.
It left her with more wins at the festival than all the trainers based in Great Britain.
The on-fire jockey is now odds-on to become the first female rider to be crowned leading jockey at the Cheltenham Festival as she reached five winners for the week - four of those coming in Grade 1s - to put her two clear of Jack Kennedy and three ahead of Paul Townend.
In another seismic moment for the sport, Blackmore overtook Nina Carberry, the leading all-time female jockey at the Cheltenham Festival.
Blackmore now has her sights set on becoming the first-ever jockey in history to win the Champion Hurdle and Gold Cup at the same time.
Ahead of the Gold Cup, she spoke to BetVictor to discuss her chances on A Plus Tard and getting ahead of Al Boum Photo, looking for a third successive win.
"A Plus Tard's style of running is relaxed and he jumps from fence to fence so I don't think it will be any problem to him, but it's a new test for him at the same time," she told the BetVictor podcast.
"You can only do so much analysing because as we all know in racing things change at the start and you have to ride the race as it comes.
"Al Boum Photo has been incredible the last two years and he's the horse we all have to beat. I'm really looking forward to riding the race and it's going to be a great spectacle."
