For an Irishman who resolutely did not want to be a jockey as a teenager, Daryl Jacob might reasonably reflect that it has not been a bad ride as he hung up his boots a day after winning a Grade One on Impaire Et Passe at Limerick on December 28.

In the credit column there are 1,002 winners, racing immortality earned through the 2012 Grand National on Neptune Collonges by the shortest-ever margin of a nose; a French Champion Hurdle on L’Ami Serge; three Betfair Chases on Bristol De Mai and 250 winners in the “double green” silks of Simon Munir and Isaac Souede, for whom he was retained for the second half of his career, including 25 alone on the two old troopers Sceau Royal and Top Notch.

In the debit? The reason why jump jockeys do not tend to get above their station can be summed up in half an hour of his life on March 14, 2014; in the very next race after winning the County Hurdle on Lac Fontana, Port Melon spooked on the way to the start for the Albert Bartlett and threw Jacob into a television camera, breaking the rider’s leg, knee, shoulder and elbow.

The son of a deep-sea fisherman who operated out of Killybegs in Donegal and who would be gone for three months at a time on trawlers, it is ironic that fish was never a part of Jacob’s diet in a constant battle with the scales.

“I hate fish,” says Jacob, 41, speaking to the Telegraph at Oaksey House, the Injured Jockeys Fund’s rehabilitation centre in Lambourn where he has spent more days than he cares to remember.

“You would too if you were fed fish for breakfast, lunch, tea and dessert as a kid,” he adds, laughing, by way of explanation.

Despite no background in horses, he hunted hard as a teenager with the Bree Hunt in Wexford, one day catching the eye of local trainer Daryl Deacon, who told him he would make a good jump jockey. He was 14, had never ridden a racehorse and said “no thanks”, but Deacon persistently asked him to come and ride out.

“I’d never even watched a horse race on television then,” he recalls. “But eventually I went up to shut him up as much as anything. I cantered up the gallop and got no buzz out of it, repeated it and still got no buzz. That was it – job done, I’d ridden out and would never have to again.

“But out hunting, the rumour started circulating that I ‘might be a jockey’, to which I’d reply ‘nope, job done’. But one thing led to another and, through my parents and Daryl, I ended up at the apprentice centre for 10 months before joining Dessie Hughes on the Curragh. He had some good jockeys at the time including Kieran Kelly, Roger Loughran and Paddy Flood. Kieran took me under his wing and I shared a house with him for two and a half years.”

Through Hughes’s connection with the Hannons (Richard Hughes, Dessie’s son, was first jockey to Richard Hannon snr), Jacob ended up coming over to ride out for the Wiltshire Flat trainer one summer and was told by Hughes to look out for a job while he was here. He heard Robert and Sally Alner were looking for an amateur.

“I asked Kieran about it and he said ‘get off the phone now and don’t ring me back ’til you’ve got the job’.”

That was in 2003. Within two and a half months, Kelly had tragically been killed in a fall in Ireland. If Jacob wavered, the Alners looked after him. “It hit me hard,” says Jacob. “Robert and Sally had me move in with them and treated me like a son.”

For two years he mopped up in point-to-points before turning professional and joining West Country trainer Paul Keane, but after riding 21 winners from 55 rides for him, he was on the verge of quitting again to the point of buying his ticket home. “I’d lost my love for the game but Sally got me back and, with the Alners, I found my love for it again.”

Their grey The Listener gave Jacob, then still a conditional jockey, a first Grade One winner in the Lexus Chase at Leopardstown in 2006, and the horse returned 14 months later to land the Irish Gold Cup. Jacob then rode for Nick Williams, including horses like Reve De Sivola and Diamond Harry.

Remaining in the West Country, Jacob became second jockey to Paul Nicholls behind Ruby Walsh and when Walsh moved back to Ireland in 2013, with a National already in the bag, Jacob was promoted to the hot seat. But after Kauto Star, Denman, Big Buck’s and Master Minded, Nicholls was going through a natural dip and their association lasted only the one season – until Jacob’s Cheltenham smash.

Expected to miss 10 months – it actually took six and a half but, a bit like beating a satnav’s time for arrival, jockeys love a medical challenge when it comes to rehab – he was replaced by Sam Twiston-Davies.

But in the summer during his recovery back home in Donegal, Jacob received a call from Munir. “He was just checking up on me but he said he wanted to help me get back on my feet,” recalls the jockey of a sliding doors moment. “It was a genuinely nice call.

“We had a few conversations, he invited me to lunch in London and offered me the job of second jockey. At the time, Barry Geraghty was first jockey to Nicky Henderson who then trained the majority [of the Munir/Souede horses], but when Barry became first jockey to JP McManus, Simon asked me if I’d like to be number one and I haven’t looked back.”

Reflecting on some of the big winners, he rates L’Ami Serge’s win in the French Champion Hurdle as good as the National.

“There was only one way he was going to win that,” Jacob says. “No one knew our tactics. I was 30 lengths off the leader at one stage, produced him at the right moment, won by a length and a half and a few yards after the line he’d run his race. It was perfect timing and was probably the best ride I ever gave a horse.

“Bristol De Mai’s second Betfair, when he beat Native River and Might Bite, the first and second in the previous season’s Gold Cup, was very special. The National was a very brave performance by Neptune Collonges. He was a good horse and finished third to Denman and Kauto Star in a Gold Cup. He’d spot trouble before I saw it and he was very big-hearted to give everything. The stats, age and weight were all against him.”

Jacob will still work for team “double green”, do a bit of media, remain involved in a yard by helping out with Harry Derham and “try to sell” racing, which has given him a wonderful career.

What might have lasted two days ended up lasting two decades. “I was never the most naturally gifted but I’ve worked hard,” he reflects. “I’ve emptied the tank. I think a few owners, trainers and fellow jockeys were caught out by my retirement, which I take as a compliment. I had to go but it’s quite nice to know I wasn’t quite past my sell-by date.”