Jockey won on A Plus Tard

Rachael Blackmore achieved a life-long ambition by riding a winner at Cheltenham.

The jockey sealed the win on A Plus Tard in the Close Brothers Novices' Handicap Chase.

As she basks in the afterglow of a Day 1 victory, she joined us to share her feelings.

Fantastic

"Getting a winner in Cheltenham is something every jockey aspires to do," she said.

"It's an incredibly hard week to achieve that. It's fantastic."

Blackmore went on to talk us through the path to victory.

"The winning jockey would always say the race went well. His form had really backed up earlier in the day with Duc Des Genievres winning the Arkle so he should have been able to do that in that fashion. It's just fantastic that he did," she explained.

"The game plan was just to keep it as simple as I could and in the manner that he won, I just had to steer him around there in one piece.

"Cheltenham is just different. There's a serious atmosphere there. It's all about Cheltenham and it's where everyone wants to be riding winners. So I'm extremely grateful to Henry De Bromhead for giving me the opportunity to ride that lad today. He's put a lot of faith in me this week. So I'm delighted I get to repay him."