3 minute read
Popular rider has been absent since July.
Grand National victor Rachael Blackmore will return from her injury layoff with one ride at Galway on Saturday.
The Irish rider enjoyed a landmark campaign last season, becoming the first female to take the top jockey title at the Cheltenham Festival, where her six-winner haul included no less than five Grade Ones with Honeysuckle in the Champion Hurdle the highlight.
Blackmore then raised the bar again as she steered Minella Times to a six-and-a-half-length verdict in the National at Aintree, with her feat as the first female rider to take the world's most famous steeplechase making her front-page news.
She also finished second to Paul Townend in the Irish jockeys' championship again, but her current season was derailed when she sustained a fractured ankle and picked up a hip injury at Killarney on July 16.
Blackmore will make her comeback at Galway this weekend, with Henry de Bromhead giving her the leg up on Balko Des Flos – the horse she beat into second in the National – in the W.B. Gavin & Co. Handicap Hurdle.
