April 12, 2021 
1944 was a far different time.
The world was in the midst of a war that would determine the fate of nations and their millions of people, and of the century, perhaps of the century to come.
Initially, Great Britain in Europe and China in Asia stood alone. It would be joined soon after by the Soviet Union and farther west by the world’s new power, the United States.
Even farther west in the United States, California’s Hollywood would join the fight on celluloid, often with films like Frank Capra’s (director of It’s A Wonderful Life) Why We Fight, a documentary series that celebrated the war effort, and classics like Michael Curtiz’s Casablanca, filmed on a Hollywood backlot “Morocco.”
In 1944, Hollywood’s biggest star, Mickey Rooney, and a blossoming teenage English actress, Elizabeth Taylor, relieved the world of its wartime stress in what certainly was horseracing’s best ever feel-good film, National Velvet, thought to be the most-watched horseracing film ever made.
Filmed mostly in California during wartime, National Velvet is a story about a girl, a horse—“The Pie”—and a dream: racing in, perhaps even winning, the celebrated Grand National Steeplechase at Aintree, run every year on the Saturday of the first full week in April. The Grand National is thought to be the most watched horse race in the world, surpassing America’s Kentucky Derby and France’s Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe (the Arc).
A main storyline in the film was Elizabeth Taylor as Velvet Brown disguising herself as a boy in order to race since girls were deemed too frail then. (Pleasant aside: After the making of the film, Taylor was given “The Pie” as a birthday gift).
Well, they race now.
Art became life Saturday at Aintree, as Rachael Blackmore became the first woman jockey in the 173 runnings of the world’s most esteemed steeplechase race to guide her horse—eight-year-old Minella Times (IRE)—to victory over the most challenging obstacles in steeplechase racing.
Her victory for owner J.P. McManus and trainer Henry de Bromhead came over Balko Des Flos, Any Second Now, and Burrows Saint.
Though the Irishwoman’s win made history, it cannot be considered a complete longshot. Blackmore was the leading rider in the March Cheltenham Festival and, at 11-1, Minella Times was a fourth choice among punters, as gamblers are termed in much of the United Kingdom.
While it might not have been shocking to bettors, the win was surely overwhelming to Blackmore, dismissing her gender triumph in otherworldly terms.
“I don’t feel male or female right now. I don’t even feel human!—this is just unbelievable.”
As was the 31-year-old’s ride.
The Grand National consists of two turns around an identical triangular course consisting of 16 obstacles of varying height and difficulty. Riders execute a total of 30 jumps, 16 on the outer side on their first circuit, 14 on the inner side their second trip. Many have gained fame and are named: Becher’s Brook, Foinavon, The Canal Turn and Valentine’s Brook.
The two final obstacles including “The Chair” and “The Water Jump”—just as it sounds—are bypassed on the second circuit. Instead, riders jump the 14th obstacle a second time, then race to the finish outside along “The Elbow,” so-named because of its configuration outside The Chair and The Water Jump.
Her tactic on the first circuit was to, in Thoroughbred racing terms, stay off the pace, to lie back in good position and save her horse.
“I was trying to wait as long as I could,” said Blackmore, explaining her strategy. “I am so lucky to be riding him. He was incredible and jumped beautifully. When we jumped the last (obstacle) and I asked him for a bit, he was there. He gave me an absolutely sensational ride.”
Rachael Blackmore’s Grand National triumph may have added a joyful result at a mournful time.
Many events throughout the United Kingdom were cancelled this weekend to honor the UK’s official mourning period for Prince Philip, who passed away peacefully of natural causes Friday at home in Windsor Castle at age 99.
Prince Philip was born of European royalty on the Greek island of Corfu on June 10, 1921. He married his distant cousin Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Windsor, in 1947. She became Queen Elizabeth II, now the longest-reigning monarch in British history, in 1952, upon the passing of her father, King George VI.
As the Duke of Windsor, Prince Philip’s official title, he oversaw thousands of events throughout the UK and the world during his life. He embraced several charitable causes and was, as is the Queen, a lover of horses.
Prince Philip was notable—and beloved by the British press—for his frequent verbal gaffes, deemed both endearing and occasionally embarrassing. On a visit to a Caribbean hospital in 1966, he quipped “You have mosquitoes. I have the Press.” Asked in 1997 about the most essential ingredient for a successful marriage, he answered, “Tolerance is the one essential ingredient. You can take it from me that the Queen has tolerance in abundance.”
In many respects, the historic victory of a young woman two months short to the day of a full century after Prince Philip’s birth can be seen to represent the passing of the torch to a new generation of Britons. A generation that is perhaps beginning to overcome historic cultural and demographic obstacles as varying and difficult as are the physical obstacles of the course at Aintree.
It’s comforting to think wherever he might be, Prince Philip—perhaps now fleeter of foot and stouter of heart—was watching, perhaps even cheering on, the passing of the torch of history to this new and different generation, in this instance a young woman, Grand National Champion Rachael Blackmore.
