Jamie Snowden delighted with Grand National outcome as Rachael Blackmore made history at Aintree

FOLLY House trainer Jamie Snowden believes that Rachael Blackmore’s historic Grand National at Aintree on Saturday was ‘exactly what racing needed’.

The 31-year-old became the first female jockey to win the race for the first time in its history, steering the Henry de Bromhead-trained Minella Times to victory.

The win also comes just a month after she was crowned top jockey at the Cheltenham Festival.

Like Snowden, Blackmore is an ambassador for BetVictor and the former understands how significant her win is for the sport.

“It is wonderful for the sport and it’s great to see the sport hitting the front and back pages for all the right reasons.

“It’s lovely and especially given the fact that we work alongside eachother with BetVictor, so its honour to be a part of it all.

“It is great for racing, especially off the back of covid and all the negative publicity we have had,” he said. “It is exactly what racing needed.”

Snowden was pleased with Hogan’s Height, who finished 12th in the race and was also the second English horse across the line.

“I think it was great to get him there in one piece and get round as well as being the second English horse to finish.

“It was nice to be part of the race and it’s a shame we weren’t making the history ourselves, but it’s great to see Rachael Blackmore doing that.”

With a couple of weeks left before the National Hunt season comes to a close, Snowden has already started thinking about the new campaign.

“We have the last couple of weeks left of the season and last season was a record-breaking one, but this year has been really good too.

“70 per cent of horses having their first race have finished in the top three, so we have some nice young horses to come through the ranks.”

Nicky Henderson hit a double at the Grand National Festival last week as Chantry House and Shishkin – who both won at Cheltenham – landed victories.

Chantry House won the G1 Mildmay Novices' Chase, while Shishkin tasted success in the G1 Maghull Novices' Chase to remain unbeaten over fences.

Speaking after Chantry House’s win, the Seven Barrows handler said: “It was all about finding out if three miles was his trip and I know it’s not the stiffest three miles in the country.

“At Cheltenham, there was moments in the race where Shan Blue was going very quick and had him out of his comfort zone, so we were keen to go at this.

“They went a really good gallop, so it was a solid test and Nico was able to get him to jump and into his zone.”

Meanwhille, Buveur D’Air ran a great race in the G1 Betway Aintree Hurdle, finishing fourth, while in the same race Buzz – also trained by Henderson – was second to Abacadabras.