INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY, MARCH 8TH)
PADDY POWER have revealed that during 2021, almost half of all horse racing punters who placed a bet on horses, backed one ridden by Rachael Blackmore.
To mark International Women’s Day, the Irish betting firm investigated the impact the Tipperary born jockey has had on their business ahead of the debut of Paddy Power’s Cheltenham Fanzone at The Camden next week.
They found that despite being one of the few professional females to compete on a level playing field as her male counterparts in a sport dominated by men, a staggering 44% of Paddy Power customers had a bet on a horse ridden by Blackmore.
The Irish bookmaker also reports that 10% of their turnover in 2021 on Irish National Hunt Racing involved horses ridden by her.
Paul Townsend currently heads the betting at 4/6 to claim Cheltenham’s top jockey title.
But it will come as little surprise that Irish punters are ploughing into Blackmore to be crowned Queen of the Cotswolds at the Cheltenham Festival again this year, with one in five betting she will be top jockey at the four-day festival, at odds of 9/2.
And according to Paddy Power 20% of bets are on the Tipperary native to repeat her fairytale week in 2021 when she won a six of the 28 races across the four days – including the Champion Hurdle.
Despite being the odds-on favourite at 1/2 to win the Champion Hurdle on Tuesday (March 15th), the Henry De Bromhead trained mare Honeysuckle, ridden by Blackmore, is currently the best backed horse for Cheltenham 2022.
And it’s not only the Irish backing the ladies. The majority (65%) of bets placed with Paddy Power are on the all-female tag team have come from UK customers.
“We’ve always said that Rachael Blackmore stood head and shoulders above the rest, that’s why we erected a 25-foot-tall ‘Fearless Jockey’ statue back in 2019 at Cheltenham. Obviously we grossly underestimated how much damage she would do to us bookies on behalf of punters in the meantime. According to the betting trends we’ve unearthed for 2022, if she repeats anything close to her success last year, we’ll be in big trouble,” a spokesperson for Paddy Power said.
The bookmaker shared the information ahead of the debut of Paddy Power’s Cheltenham Fanzone at The Camden, Dublin, taking place on Thursday March 17 & Friday March 18.
Tickets for Ireland’s first ever Cheltenham Fanzone can be purchased at €20 per day via TicketMaster and Universe. If you can’t be there, be here.
You’ll find all the latest odds with Paddy Power on Cheltenham here: https://www.paddypower.com/horse-racing?tab=cheltenham
See More: Cheltenham Festival, Rachel Blackmore
