What Rachael Blackmore has done is remarkable. It was a privilege and an honour to present her Gold Cup win on ITV.

I started the day in awe of the fact I was sharing the podium with three jockeys who had won the Grand National and Gold Cup – and I ended the day with four.

The sport of horse racing is so lucky to have Rachael Blackmore. That photo of her, sitting on top of A Plus Tard, arms aloft with a crowd around her, it will be shown round the world for years to come.

The Gold Cup was televised in the United States for the first time on Fox Sports and I bet that was because of Rachael Blackmore. Racing, for the first time I can remember, has got a global superstar.

I was watching the race with Sir Anthony McCoy. He likes his records, AP, and now Rachael has become the first jockey to win the Gold Cup and the Champion Hurdle since he did in 1997. But even AP is in total admiration of what she is doing. It is impossible not to be.

When Rachael came over to our podium she was visibly shaking at what she had just achieved. Her microphone was shaking, her left hand was shaking, she needed water. I do not think she could quite believe what she had just done.

AP whispered in my ear: “I want to tell her to make sure she enjoys it, milks it, because these days just don’t happen.” Sound advice, indeed. When AP talks, you listen.

Ruby Walsh and Mick Fitzgerald were emotional, too. These are two of the greatest, most hardened National Hunt jockeys ever. These guys just do not get emotional; at least not until Rachael Blackmore wins the Gold Cup.

I have been getting WhatsApps from my kids saying “I love Rachael, I can’t believe it”. They never engage with racing. Never. Well not until Friday, anyway. On social media you have got people watching the sport who never normally would, desperate to see how Rachael gets on in the Gold Cup. She has true star power. It is incredible.

Rachael is charming, she is engaging, polite, self-deprecating… but she is also cold and ruthless. Just look at the race. It was a tactical masterclass, just brilliant – a ride with ice in her veins. As soon as they went slow in front, Ruby spotted it. “This is playing into her hands,” he told me. He was right, of course he was.

It turned the race into a speed test, and nobody is beating A Plus Tard in a speed test. She waited and then swooped when the gap opened and her turn of foot proved decisive.

She came on our morning show on Friday and you could see how much last year hurt. It was clear to me that she had unfinished business with the Gold Cup. It has obviously haunted her for 12 months, even though she has won Grand Nationals, Champion Hurdles, Irish Champion Hurdles and all these different individual awards in the meantime. It has been eating away at her. Well, not anymore.

Rachael has a choice. She is a global superstar now – if she wanted to, she could be a media superstar, too. But that is not her style. On Saturday, she will be riding again at Thurles. That says everything you need to know about Rachael Blackmore.

It is a day I will remember for ever. Not that I will be out celebrating too hard; I am presenting at Uttoxeter on Saturday.

At such a difficult time, we all hoped this would be a week where sport could put a smile back on people’s faces. I hope we have done that with our coverage, which has been watched by an incredible amount of people.

If Rachael Blackmore has not put a smile on your face, then nobody ever will.

Cheltenham united in celebration as Blackmore strikes gold

By Jim White at Cheltenham

As Rachael Blackmore steered A Plus Tard back to the winner’s enclosure, Cheltenham exploded into a superstructure-threatening roar. Atop her horse, the first woman to win the Gold Cup punched the air in acknowledgement of all the cheers and flung beers that marked her progress.

It is a long way from the kindly applause of a few dozen farmers she will get when she rides out at Thurles in County Tipperary on Saturday.

This was the result the packed Cheltenham crowd was waiting for. History on four legs.

In the winner’s enclosure, even Sir Alex Ferguson, co-owner of third-placed Protektorat, applauded her arrival enthusiastically. And he does not usually look that pleased when he has come third. But this was a victory with meaning, a win which felt transformative, a win that made it clear that jump racing is now a sport almost unique in the way the top prizes are open to everyone, regardless of gender.

Everyone, that is, who is as talented as Blackmore. And there are not many of them around.

“She’s a savage rider,” said A Plus Tard’s trainer Henry de Bromhead. “We are lucky to have her.”

Last year, in a deserted, desolate Cheltenham, Blackmore had come second in the Gold Cup on the same horse, beaten at the last by stablemate Minella Indo. This year, the places were reversed. But that was not the only change.

“It was so different,” said Blackmore. “This time you couldn’t see space. You could just see bodies.”

And the bodies had been waiting, after a year’s enforced absence, to unleash their delight. Everywhere you looked were familiar faces. There was James Anderson, over there was Dean Smith and the Princess Royal handing over the trophy to Blackmore. Ed Woodward, the former Manchester United executive vice-chairman, was here too. Though it was unlikely, given his track record, anyone asked him to pick a winner.