GREAT to see Rachael Blackmore has been nominated for the BBC World Sports Star 2021 Award. The jockey is one of six international nominees for the award which will be presented live on BBC 1 on Sunday, December 19th.

According to the BBC, Rachael is the first woman to finish in the first four in Aintree’s Grand National. Katie Walsh will be surprised to hear that.

Unlike you, Parrot Mouth follows many other sports outside of the horsey world but we have never heard of any of the other nominees. There’s an American Football chap named Tom Brady, who we think may be related to Oliver Brady, and a Formula 1 driver known as Max Verstappen, but we are told he only races on the flat, not over jumps. And as for “Novak Djokovic”, well, we have no idea what this is but we hope there’s a vaccine.

More seriously, it appears that you have to live in Britain to be able to vote. This is another Brexit mess. We trust some hackers out there will tell us how we can get around this protocol. Failing that, we must petition our dear friends north of the border to vote early and often for our Rachael.

Web: www.bbc.com/sport/sports-personality.

Blackmore’s Grand Year

FURTHER evidence of Rachael’s stardom is captured in a new documentary to be shown on RTÉ over Christmas. Entitled Rachael Blackmore – A Grand Year, the film has been made by Ross Whittaker whose work in sport previously told the stories of Katie Taylor, Shane Lowry and the GAA’s Toughest Year. The project has been developed with the support of Horse Racing Ireland and produced by Fifty-Three Six.