“There are days when he’d go to Sandown or Ascot to ride a hot favourite that finishes second and he’ll be in bits. You see the emotion he shows when he’s won races, you can imagine what it would be like when he’s just got beat. He wears his heart on his sleeve certainly and he’d be more emotional than most jockeys but equally I think it’s good that he lets it out because it’s those people that are bottling it up that are struggling probably.”

Anthony Bromley - Daryl Jacob: Being A Jockey

OF all the jumps jockeys based either side of the Irish Sea, Daryl Jacob might well have been one of the more unlikely candidates to put himself forward for an hour-long documentary about his life, family and profession.

Indeed the Donegal-born, Wexford-raised 38-year-old has politely declined requests to do this interview in recent years, citing a preference to keep himself to himself.

“I’ve always been more of a private person,” he admits this week. “So yeah, I was a bit cagey about the cameras following me everywhere but to be honest, I got into it very quickly and I enjoyed it in the end. Greg (Whelan) and Andrew (Van de Waal) did a brilliant job with it and made me feel at ease with the situation.”

The documentary, presented by Sporting Life, has all the same hallmarks of any piece with a well established jumps jockey but it isn’t any less compelling for that and Jacob’s openness to talk about his key close relationships, particularly his friendship with Kieran Kelly, is unique insight to a jockey who from the outside, always appears to lead with his emotions in the wake of victory or defeat.

And yet the sort of passion Jacob puts on display is slightly at odds with his background, coming from a non-racing family and with little interest in becoming a jockey until late in the day. The Wexford native wasn’t riding Grand National winners on the side of his couch but more thinking about running out at Lansdowne Road.

He played out-half, scrum half and full back positions for Kilkenny College and Enniscorthy through his early teens and only rode horses through the disciplines of hunting and team chasing, where his talent was spotted. But even when he moved up to Kildare to attend the apprentice school, he still hadn’t seen a Grand National.

It was here though that Jacob met Kieran Kelly, who was stable jockey to Dessie Hughes at the time.

“I lived with Kieran and we were very good friends,” he says taking up the story. “He took me under his wing and taught me an awful lot, like how to be a nice person and how to go about my business in the right way.

“Kieran was the one who got me over to England, over to Richard Hannon’s yard. That connection came through Richard Hughes who he was good friends with and who was stable jockey to Richard Hannon at the time. When I was in England, Kieran wanted me to look out for a job that would suit me. I heard there was a job going for Robert and Sally Alner so I rang him and asked him about it and he said: ‘Get off the phone with me now and tell them you’ll take the job.’ He was adamant I should take the position and I was very, very lucky that I did.”

Jacob was in Britain three and a half months when Kelly tragically died after taking a fall at Kilbeggan. As shown in the documentary, he carries a picture of his friend in the sun visor in his car so the pair are never far away from each other given the time Jacob spends up and down the motorways of Britain.

He says he wouldn’t have got through the time Kelly died without the care and help from the Alners. Robert sadly passed away last year and Jacob says “The Boss” was instrumental in his early career and Sally was like a mother to him – “She could have told some mad stories about me in the documentary,” he adds, laughing now.

Jacob rode the Alners’ Free Gift to win 16 races in point-to-points, hunter chases and under rules proper but his first breakthrough on the main stage was on The Listener, who provided him a breakthrough Grade 1 success in the 2006 Lexus Chase.

Progressed

From there, he progressed his career quickly, riding as stable jockey to Nick Williams before becoming second and then first jockey to Paul Nicholls, and then attaining his current position as retained rider to Simon Munir and Isaac Souede.

As we talk, the 38-year-old is on the way back from Fontwell where he rode his 50th winner of a truncated season. He is closing in on 1,000 winners in Britain and has 27 Grade 1 wins to his name. He also has three Cheltenham Festival wins and a Grand National. And given all that he achieved, the biggest and perhaps most surprising takeaway from his documentary is that self doubt is never far away from his state of mind.

“Confidence is a massive thing for me,” Jacob says. “I’d say I’m one of the most senior members in the weighroom now and I know for a fact that I’ve struggled with my own confidence. You’re always going to ride significantly more losers than winners. It’s just something you have to accept but it’s not easy all of the time.

“You could ride loser after loser, but then when a good horse with a good opportunity comes along, you have to be confident that you can go out there and do the job, ride a good race and ultimately win when you have the chance. I’d say confidence is a massive thing for a jockey, perhaps more than any other sport in the world. You’re riding half-a-ton animals flat out and having to make split second decisions in a race.

“I think a lot of young jockeys, they need that confidence built into them, they need to be told that they are good riders.”

Jacob speaks very highly of Anthony Bromley both in the documentary and in this interview. Bromley buys horses for Munir and Souede, and acts as their racing manager. He also takes up that role with Jacob to an extent. The ‘Double Green’ foursome are a tight bunch and have combined for huge success in recent seasons, most notably on next week’s Grand National contender Bristol De Mai.

Bromley says in the documentary that it shouldn’t be taken for granted that jockeys like Jacob are supremely confident after achieving so much and his assertion about the sharp emotional nature of his associated jockey is readily agreed to. “I’ve put a lot into this game,” Jacob says. “I’ve worked incredibly hard since I was 15. I’ve always put pressure on myself to perform. I want the best for whoever I ride for and I want to do them justice. The pressure is there because you’ve got to go out and prove yourself every day of the week because there is a constant stream of new jockeys coming through.

“It’s like football players or any sport, there’s young people coming through and they’re all snapping at your heels because they want the job that you have. You’re never safe, you’re never comfortable because you’ve got to prove what you’re worth every day of the week.

Daryl Jacob with his family after a winner \ Dan Abraham - focusonracing.com

“I put a lot of passion into it and when it goes right you want to use your emotions and when it goes wrong it’s hard to keep in the emotions. But I don’t think showing emotions is a bad thing.”

That constant pressure to prove your worth in a game of fickle mannerisms coupled with the injuries and the perennial losing rate is surely a hotbed for mental issues.

“For sure, it doesn’t rocket science to work out that the potential for mental health issues is there,” Jacob asserts. “The game has changed and there’s an awful lot of pressure on people now, trainers and jockeys, young and old. I think there are people out there struggling. I know people are getting help.

“I can honestly admit there was a stage in my career when I was very down and I found it very tough but I’ve been lucky with the people I’ve had in my life that have managed to get me through it. Mental health issues are there and they will always be there, in racing and in life.

“I think social media has become very dangerous. Don’t get me wrong, social media can be very good but I’ve witnessed first hand how cruel it can be. I’m lucky enough that it doesn’t affect me anymore but I’ve seen some of the stuff that some 7lb claimers get. When you’re not used to it, it’s very, very nasty.

“I think it’s quite sad that people can hide behind an egg face and take the piss and abuse people and not know what kind of damage it can do.”

Undoubtedly Jacob’s wife Kelly and two children Harry and Darcy, are among the key people that help the jockey’s state of mind when he needs it. Injuries are never far between but having “a beautiful wife and two amazing children to have more time to spend with” has given him a different perspective on time on the sidelines.

Bristol De Mai and Jacob will take on the Grand National next Saturday \ Healy Racing

Settled

He speaks like a man well settled now, at ease with his life at home and to an extent on the track, though he will always put pressure on himself to achieve the best he can.

It’s nine years since he delivered Neptune Collonges for a last-gasp win over Sunnyhillboy in the Grand National, an exceptional piece of riding to get the 11-year-old up in the shadows of the post for his then employer Paul Nicholls.

The Listener gave Jacob a first Grade 1 win in the Lexus Chase at Leopardstown \ Healy Racing.

A year later, Jacob became first jockey to Nicholls, following Ruby Walsh’s decision to locate in Ireland full time. It was the biggest job in British jumps racing at the time, not long after Kauto Star and Denman resided at Ditcheat but his tenure only lasted one season, despite plenty of success.

From the outside, the break-up seemed harsh. Jacob had just ridden Nicholls a Festival winner on Lac Fontana in the County Hurdle when his horse Port Melon collided into a rail on his way down to post for the Albert Bartlett Novices’ Hurdle. He broke his leg, knee, elbow and shoulder and was on the sidelines for five months, allowing Sam Twiston-Davies into the hot seat. It was only the following month after Cheltenham that Nicholls announced Twiston-Davies would hold on to the position next season, offering Jacob the position to go second jockey again, which he passed off with an intention to go freelance.

“I learned an awful lot from Paul,” he says. “I’m very proud of the fact that the year that I was stable jockey to him, he was champion trainer. The quality of horses he had when I was stable jockey wasn’t that strong and he was still champion trainer. I won a Grand National for him, I’ve won plenty of Grade 1s for him, two Festival winners, so I’ll only ever look at that relationship as a very good one.

“The injury happened but that’s racing. Time isn’t going to wait for anybody. I was out for five months, Sam got in there, the horses were going well for him and Paul obviously felt like Sam was the right person at that time to take on the mantle. But one door closed and another door opened.”

A friendly call from Simon Munir to Jacob after he had received the news from Nicholls was the beginning of a hugely successful relationship that is time-tested – this is the seventh season Jacob has been a member of team double green.

There has been significant success – the likes of Bristol De Mai, Sceau Royal, Fusil Raffles, Top Notch, We Have A Dream, Terrefort and L’Ami Serge. Jacob also rode his first Cheltenham Festival winner in the double green on Willie Mullins’s Concertista last season, but like most of their compatriots, the team got overwhelmed at Cheltenham last month and the rider echoes calls that something needs to be changed in British jumps racing.

“It was hard watching,” he says. “I think there is going to have to be a massive shake up in British racing. We can’t afford to be getting beaten like that year on year. To be honest with you, it’s very worrying for British racing that you’ve got an awful lot of British owners getting horses trained in Ireland.

“Ireland has done an exceptional job, HRI have done a fantastic job to showcase Ireland and Irish racing. You watch Irish racing and see the Dublin Racing Festival, the Killarneys, the Listowels, the Galways – all of those Festivals are top class.

“We’re lacking that here. If you’ve got a good horse in England, there’s plenty of races for them. You can dodge other horses, you can pick and choose where you want to run. You don’t have to get into that sort of battle. You can keep your horse looking very good until you get to Cheltenham. In Ireland, you’ve got Leopardstown, Fairyhouse and Punchestown where a lot of horses take each other on. The competition is very healthy. We probably need an element of that competition here.”

Aintree

The British and Irish will likely do battle, perhaps to a lesser extent, at Aintree next week, and Jacob will be more hopeful, and is excited about the prospect of riding Bristol De Mai in the National.

“I’m really looking forward to riding him,” he says. “He was very good in the Betfair Chase. For a horse to win three Betfair Chases, it’s an incredible achievement. He ran very well in the Cotswold Chase at Sandown and he just bumped into a very good, rejuvenated, back-to-his-best Native River.

“The ground is going to be beautiful at Aintree – good to soft, soft in places. A flat left-handed track suits him best. I won it on Neptune Collonges and he was a class act, he was placed in a Gold Cup and so was Bristol De Mai, so I know I’m going in there riding a very classy horse and if you’re doing that you’ve got to go in there confident and hopeful of a very big run.”

And as Jacob says, confidence is key.

The ‘Daryl Jacob: Being a Jockey’ documentary is available to watch in full on YouTube

Jacob points to the sky after winning the Grand National on Neptune Collonges in 2012 \ Healy Racing