David Patrick

David Patrick was born at Haverhill, Suffolk, on May 16, 1940, and was apprenticed to Harvey Leader at Newmarket. His first winner was on Souvrillus at Wincanton on September 18, 1958, for Compton-based trainer Atty Corbett.

Later that season, on February 28, 1959, he scored what was to be his biggest success, on the Ken Cundell-trained Bravi in Newbury’s Highclere Hurdle. An Easter Monday victory on Corbett’s mare Yerbama at Chepstow rounded off a successful first season for Dave with five winners and four placings from 18 rides.

In the autumn of 1962 he struck up a partnership with the steeplechaser Famous Knight, owner-trained by Ron Young, who won four and was placed five times, revelling in the fast early season ground at Newton Abbot. But following their last appearance together, when third of four at Wye on October 22, 1962, David left the racing industry for a spell.

He was enticed back for the start of the 1965/66 season and rode

what was his first winner for three years on a hurdler named Brooky at Market Rasen on October 9, 1965 (left). Brooky was trained at Newmarket by Pat Moore, who also provided David with his second winner since his comeback, the chaser Freeby Wood, at Huntingdon three weeks later.

Dave’s association with Pat Moore did much to revive his career, with seasonal totals rising from eight to nine to ten over the course of the next three seasons. Moore’s hurdlers Mysterious Mick and Toy Soldier won several races between them, while Devon Twist and Crimson Clip, both owned and trained by Sidney Banks at Sandy, Bedfordshire, were among others who contributed to his tally of winners.

Dave was arguably unlucky not to have won the Grand National. He rode Foinavon at Huntingdon on Easter Monday 1967 and was invited by the horse’s trainer, John Kempton, to ride him in the Grand National twelve days later. But Dave had already committed to ride another long-shot for Famous Knight’s trainer Ron Young, an old selling chaser named Bob-a-Job, on whom he’d won at Wye the previous month. Unfortunately, just days before the National, Young changed his mind and gave the ride to his son Chris, despite him only having had four rides in public. The rest, as they say, is history. Foinavon escaped the melee at the fence after Becher’s and stayed on to win by 15 lengths. Bob-a-Job got round in his own time to finish twelfth. As for Dave, he never again got the chance to ride in the Grand National. A case of “what might have been”.

Dave Patrick rode the last of his 55 winners on Pat Moore’s novice hurdler River Snap at Leicester on April 6, 1970. He hung up his saddle and riding boots at the end of that season.