Danny Gilligan

I'm from Craughwell, Co Galway and mam and dad have a yard at home. Horses were always around when I was growing up. I was quite young when dad's Berties Dream won in Cheltenham (Grade 1 Albert Bartlett in 2010 for Paul Gilligan) and I can still remember the day when he came back to the yard with all the local people coming back to see him. There were also plenty of other big days where dad trained winners. It is fair to say I was born into the game. I did a bit of pony racing and I was very lucky to ride plenty of winners. Then Covid-19 arrived and it was brought to a stop for a while when I was just short of the 100-winner mark. Pony racing really helps your racecraft and tunes you in for when you do go to the track.

The plan was always to go jumping really, I was always a touch on the heavy side to ride on the Flat. When I turned 16 I was either going to go amateur for the year or try and get signed on as an apprentice (on the Flat). I decided to ride on the Flat and that was a massive help to me as well, it tidied me up an awful lot as well. It got my name out there a small bit. I was apprenticed to Fozzy Stack. It was a brilliant yard to be in and Fozzy was very good to me. There were plenty of jockeys coming in there to ride work and I learned loads off them. I had my first racecourse winner on Plunkett for Paul Flynn at Leopardstown in June 2022. I had ridden plenty of placed horses and had just got touched off, so it was a brilliant feeling and a lot of relief to finally get over the line. Paul was a good supporter of mine on the Flat and still is now over jumps. He was a jockey and whenever he does say something, you would always listen to it. When growing up, dad mostly had jumpers and I was always around the National Hunt horses ,so going jumping was kind of always going to happen. After just under a year riding on the Flat, my weight was starting to creep up a bit. I wasn't really sure for a while which jumping yard to go to and plenty of people told me to try Gordon Elliott. Lucky enough, he took me on.

Jack Kennedy, Jordan Gainford and Sam Ewing were unfortunately out injured, and I got off to a good start. Winning the Galway Plate on Ash Tree Meadow was magic down there. As I said in interviews afterwards, I would have known nearly every second person at the track from growing up in Galway. I knew he had a right chance, but I wasn't going out thinking this lad is going to win. He was very good on the day. I had ridden him when he was second in a hurdle race at Punchestown a couple of runs before Galway, and I thought it was a very good run and that it would leave him bang on to run a nice race. I think it has been my most memorable day in the saddle to date, it would be hard to beat it being from Galway. It is one of the bigger handicaps during the summer and it made it more special having all my family there.

Winning the Troytown on Coko Beach at Navan in November and a Grade 2 juvenile hurdle on Kala Conti at Leopardstown over Christmas showed that Gordon gave me plenty of opportunities all season. I was grateful to get the leg up in those races never mind winning them. It was then great to see Noel and Valerie Moran (Bective Stud) get off the mark at the Cheltenham Festival with Better Days Ahead who I rode in the Martin Pipe. They sponsor me, so that made it even more special. When you are starting off, you are hoping you could ride a winner at those festivals. It is great to have one already and hopefully there are plenty more to come. There's plenty of racing, so you wouldn't get too much time to reflect on it, but a couple of days later it really sunk in. I was over the moon.

My agent Garry Cribbin was brilliant for me all season. He got me up on plenty of nice horses for outside trainers and a big thanks to him as well. I never really thought too much about winning the conditional jockeys' championship, to be honest. I was just trying to ride as many winners as I could and try to get as many rides as I could. It was only in the last couple of weeks that I thought about it and it was great to win it. I've a lot of people to thank as a lot of people supported me for the season, but the two main people would have to be Gordon and Garry. My mother and father supporting me all along meant a lot as well. It was a great way to end the season with a Punchestown winner on Harsh in the Adare Manor Opportunity Final Handicap Hurdle, and to get one for Joseph O'Brien and Gigginstown meant a lot. You would hope to ride a Grade 1 winner - I'll just try and keep getting as many rides as I can in the new season. I'll try and keep getting the winners. Hopefully, one day I will get the leg up on a Grade 1 winner.

It is a very rewarding industry when things do go your way, but you have to put in the work. A lot of times things don't always go your way, so you have to be able to take the ups and downs. I live with Jordan and Sam, and we share plenty of the driving. We are all in Gordon's every day riding out before we go racing. Most of the time, if we are all going to the same meeting, we would all go together. That is a big help, going together and having the craic. We all get on very well. Gordon has given me unbelievable opportunities and it is definitely a move I don't regret.

Danny was in conversation with Michael Graham

About Michael Graham

Michael has worked in horse racing journalism for more than 15 years, having also written a weekly betting column on Gaelic football and hurling for a newspaper. He is involved in writing the My Racing Story features on this website. He spent a year in South Africa completing a Diploma in Business Administration and also studied Newspaper Journalism in Belfast. He enjoys playing 5-a-side football on a regular basis.

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