Gordon Brown – Race Reporter
Gordon has a wealth of experience of racing through his background in the written and broadcast media. His current principle role is reporting and supporting the scene in Scotland on Racing TV and relaying the latest news with Scottish angles.
Rachael Blackmore tops the bill at Perth’s Edinburgh Gin Ladies Day.
Record-breaking Rachael Blackmore is the star attraction on sold out Edinburgh Gin Ladies Day at
Perth on Thursday as she makes her first appearance at Britain’s most northern racecourse.
The first female jockey to win the Aintree Grand National and Cheltenham Gold Cup, she is booked for the ride on Brave Way in the £15,000 DM Hall 125th Anniversary Novices’ Chase.
Having opened her account as an amateur in 2011, Blackmore has become a household name after landing the 2021 Grand National aboard Minella Times and this year’s Gold Cup in March on A Plus Tard.
Brave Way carries the colours of locally-based Kenny Alexander – owner of Blackmore’s multiple Grade 1 partner Honeysuckle – and she is also the first Perth runner for Co Waterford trainer Henry De Bromhead.
Hazel Peplinski, Perth Racecourse CEO, said: “I feel I need to give Kenny Alexander the credit for
providing us with the icing on the cake to our sell out Edinburgh Gin Ladies Day in the shape of a
surprise appearance from the world class jockey Rachael Blackmore.
Rachael is stable jockey to Henry de Bromhead with whom Kenny has a few horses including the legendary Champion hurdler, Honeysuckle.
“Ireland has long provided Perth with a huge number of runners, to now have Henry de Bromhead
also setting the satnav for Perth has given us all a real kick. I often see Kenny walking his dogs here
at Perth, he once advised me that he has this good young mare worth a follow – Honeysuckle – and then after all Rachel’s success I made encouraging noises about introducing Perth’s race programme to Henry in the hope our loyal racegoers might enjoy Rachael’s incredible talent on home soil.
“We wish connections of Brave Way, who runs in the same colours as Honeysuckle, the best of luck
in The DM Hall sponsored 3 Mile Novice Chase on Thursday and our sincere thanks go to Kenny for being so sporting.”
Elsewhere, Amalfi Doug, who has recorded a modern-day record of seven wins at Perth, is set to
shoulder top-weight of 12st 2lb in the Edinburgh Gin Raspberry Handicap Chase.
The Keith Dalgleish trained spring-heeled grey gained the landmark success at his favourite track by a neck last September.
Matthew Taylor, Perth Racecourse Racing Manager, said: “We are excited to welcome 62 runners to Perth for Edinburgh Gin Ladies Day, as we welcome a crowd back for the first time since 2019 as well as Gold Cup and Grand National winning Jockey Rachael Blackmore. We had 4mm of rain yesterday which wasn’t forecast, making the ground good to soft, good in places.”
Please note that Edinburgh Gin Ladies Day on Thursday is completely sold out with no “walk-ups”
available on the day.
The first of seven races tomorrow is at 2.15pm – all live on Racing TV.