Jump jockey Danny Cook was born in Romford in 1983, the son of a landscape gardener. He began his racing career as an amateur and had his first ride for Andy Streeter on Kafi, who trailed home 13th of 17 finishers in an amateur riders’ handicap hurdle at Bangor-on-Dee on August 18, 2001.
He turned conditional and teamed up with Stoke-on-Trent trainer Barry Leavy, for whom he rode his first winner on Debbie in a two-mile novices’ hurdle at Hereford on October 17, 2004.
He moved to David Pipe to become conditional at Pond House and enjoyed big-race success on popular chaser Our Vic in the 2010 Peter Marsh Chase, a race he was to win four times altogether. He registered another notable success the same year on Great Endeavour in the Byrne Group Plate at the Cheltenham Festival.
Danny subsequently moved north and rode for Brian Ellison and Sue Smith, who played vital roles in resurrecting his career following a six-month ban for testing positive for cocaine in early 2015. From thereon he quickly established himself as one of the leading riders on the northern circuit, enjoying his most prolific campaign with 51 winners in the 2016/17 season.
He forged a successful partnership with Ellison’s chaser Definitely Red, on whom he won the Many Clouds Chase twice, the Cotswold Chase and the Charlie Hall Chase. He also won good races on Wakanda, Midnight Shadow and Vintage Clouds, all trained by Smith, with big race wins including the Sky Bet (formerly Great Yorkshire) Chase, Relkeel Hurdle, Scottish Champion Hurdle, Dipper Novices’ Chase and, in 2020, the Ultima Handicap Chase at the Cheltenham Festival.
He was at the peak of his career when riding the Brian Ellison-trained Cormier to victory in a Fakenham novices’ hurdle on October 16, 2020. It was to be his last. The following day he took a fall from Ravenhill Road at the second last fence at Market Rasen. He suffered multiple injuries, including a fractured eye socket, broken nose and cheekbone, and required 50 stitches in his face after being trodden on by a following horse.
Amazingly, he returned to action the following month and had a total of 16 rides including three second places. The last of them was on Definitely Red, who fell at the eleventh fence in the Rehearsal Chase at Newcastle on November 28, 2020. The comeback proved short-lived as, having continued to experience problems with the vision in his right eye, he announced the following day that he was taking a break in order to allow time for the damage to heal.
Following months of further tests and consultation with eye specialists, he was advised in September 2021 that there was no way back and his 20-year career was at an end. He had ridden 397 winners including multiple Grade 2 victories.
Elaborating on the problem, he said: “When my head goes up in the horizontal position for riding, my eye is not rotating enough to get the vision out and I get a complete blackout.”
He added: “Day to day my sight is fine looking straight forward, but when I look up it goes a bit blurry. It was very close to being very nasty, but luckily, I’ve still got my still vision and can live a relatively normal life.”
Having based himself in Essex, Danny, aged 38, revealed that he would probably by joining his family’s landscaping business, while adding that he would like to get back into racing in some way in the future.
Danny Cook’s biggest wins:
2010: Peter Marsh Chase – Old Vic
2010: Byrne Group Plate – Great Endeavour
2015: Altcar Novices’ Chase (Haydock) – Wakanda
2015: bet365 Handicap Chase (Wetherby) – Wakanda
2015: Rehearsal Chase - Wakanda
2015: Sodexo Silver Cup (Ascot) – Wakanda
2016: Peter Marsh Chase – Cloudy Too
2016: Roeland Meyrick Handicap Chase – Definitely Red
2017: Grimthorpe Handicap Chase – Definitely Red
2017: Many Clouds Chase – Definitely Red
2018: Sky Bet Handicap Chase (Doncaster) – Wakanda
2018: Cotswold Chase – Definitely Red
2018: Scottish Champion Hurdle – Midnight Shadow
2018: Charlie Hall Chase – Definitely Red
2018: Many Clouds Chase – Definitely Red
2019: Relkeel Hurdle – Midnight Shadow
2019: Peter Marsh Chase – Wakanda
2020: Dipper Novices’ Chase – Midnight Shadow
2020: Peter Marsh Chase – Vintage Clouds
2020: Ultima Handicap Chase – Vintage Clouds
