HE’S 17 years of age, he’s been injured for over a month but he still started this week as the leading professional jump jockey of the season.

Danny Gilligan has made a sensational start to his riding career.

Son of Athenry trainer Paul and Natalie, he is the second youngest of four boys and followed in the footsteps of older siblings Liam and Jack by taking out a jockey’s licence as soon as he turned 16.

He already had plenty of experience, both at home and in pony racing, where he rode approximately 100 winners. Danny also knew a bit about injuries before he turned professional, something which is standing to him now.

“I was about nine or 10 when I started in pony racing,” he recalls. “I missed out a bit due to Covid and I also broke my shoulder which kept me off for a while.”

It was a nasty spill, which required surgery. “Yeah, I had an operation, got a plate put in, five screws,” he deadpans, as if it was nothing more than a bit of a nuisance.

Danny turned 16 in January 2022 and immediately became apprenticed to Fozzy Stack. “I was always a touch heavy for the flat but you can’t get a jumps licence until you are 17, so a year on the flat was the only option for me. It tidies you up.”

He also did a couple of days at RACE where, he says, the information he received on nutrition was the most useful part.

Danny had six flat winners last year and as soon as he reached 17 in January he joined Gordon Elliott’s yard and went jumping. Even though he had yet to ride a winner over obstacles, Elliott put him up in the Martin Pipe at Cheltenham. He also had two rides for his father at the Festival.

A month later he rode his first jumps winner at Tramore and then a couple of others followed, just before Punchestown. It was good timing. Elliott put Danny up on a dozen nice horses at Punchestown and, while none of them won, he was part of the team now.

Unfortunate injuries to his housemates Jordan Gainford and Sam Ewing saw Danny start the new season as effectively the number one rider in the Elliott yard. Remember, he’s not yet 17 and a half, and he only rode his first winner over jumps a few weeks earlier.

He almost forgets to mention that he had a bad fall at Punchestown himself, fracturing his shoulder. “I didn’t know I had broken it and kept riding for a few weeks. Eventually I was sent for an MRI and that’s when I found out.”

Asked how he handles the pain, Danny gives a little laugh. “We’d have done a lot of hunting and schooling since we were small. We’re used to a bit of hardship!”

A treble at Ballinrobe’s two-day meeting at the end of May included success in the Mayo National on Tullybeg.

On the June bank holiday weekend Danny rode the J.P. McManus-owned Glan to win a nice handicap hurdle, and the winners kept flowing until his luck ran out in Downpatrick on June 17th when a fall left him with a broken collarbone.

He already had 18 winners racked up by that stage, a figure only reached this week by Paul Townend.

Danny was hoping to resume riding out this week and, all going well, he plans to be back in action before Galway, where a winner would be a really big deal.

“I think people would describe me as laid-back and I have good people around me, like my brothers, my parents and Sam and Jordan. I couldn’t be in a better position.”

Between the 18 jumps winners and six on the flat, Danny only has one more winner to ride before he loses his 7lb claim. The drop to 5lb might be no harm as it means he won’t have to do 9st 7lb any more.

It will be fascinating to see how his career develops.