Born Glengoura, Curraglass, County Cork on December 23, 1995, Jonathan Burke is the son of Mallow trainer Liam Burke. He began his riding career as a 16-year-old amateur, opening his account on Trendy Gift, owned and trained by his father, in a National Hunt Flat Race at Cork on April 9, 2012. Two years later, on April 29, 2014, with a dozen or so winners to his name, he won the valuable Goffs Land Rover Bumper on Very Much So, trained by Willie Mullins.
Shortly afterwards, Burke became a conditional jockey, two winners shy of the 20 required for his 7lb claim to be reduced to 5lb. On June 9, 2014, he rode his first winner as a professional, Golden Kite, trained by Adrian Maguire, in the Connact National Handicap Chase at Roscommon. Remarkably, later that year, Burke – an 18-year-old, still claiming 5lb – was offered the job as retained jockey to leading owners Ann and Alan Potts. He repaid the Potts’ faith in him by riding three high-profile winners before the end of 2014, Sizing Europe in the Champion Chase at Gowran Park, Shanahan’s Turn in the Florida Pearl Novice Chase at Punchestown and his first Grade 1 winner, Sizing John, in the Champions Novice Hurdle at Leopardstown over Christmas.
Burke would ride one more Grade 1 winner in the Potts’ colours, Sizing Granite in the Maghull Novices’ Chase at Aintree on April 11, 2015 but, in November 2016, with an increasing number of their horses based in England, he brought the partnership to an end “to explore other opportunities”. After a spell back in the freelance ranks, he became stable jockey to Charlie Longsdon in Over Norton, Oxfordshire, Tom George in Slad, Gloucestershire and, since April 2024, to Fergal O’Brien
in Withington, Gloucestershire.
Since crossing the Irish Sea, Burke has added three more winners to his Grade 1 tally, namely Not So Sleepy, trained by Hughie Morrison, in the Fighting Fifth Hurdle at Newcastle and Crambo, trained by O’Brien, in the Long Walk Hurdle at Ascot in both 2023 and 2024. He enjoyed his most successful season on British soil, so far, in 2024/25, when he rode 76 winners and collected just shy of £1.2 million in prize money for connections. Looking ahead, Burke once said, “You look at some jockeys and they’re going on until they are 42, 43, 44. Again, you need a bit of luck with injuries, but I want to go as far as I can.”