Paddy Farrell

Patrick Anthony Farrell was born at Grange Con, Co. Wicklow, on July 20, 1930. His father worked for trainer Paddy Sleator, to whom young Paddy became apprenticed. He rode his first winner on three-year-old hurdler Port Luna at Roscommon on September 13, 1949. However, on his very next ride, he broke an elbow at Downpatrick and was out of action for nine months.

He rode 35 winners in Ireland before coming crossing the Irish Sea, achieving his first British success on novice hurdler Sontogo, trained by Charlie Hall, at Wetherby on January 12, 1953. Although it was his first winner in Britain, Paddy knew the horse well, having ridden him to victory less than a fortnight earlier at Baldoyle on New Year’s Day, when he was trained by Sleator.

Paddy went on to enjoy a long and successful association as Charlie Hall’s stable jockey, achieving his first big race triumph on Stormhead in the 1953 Emblem Chase at Manchester. Hall’s principal owner was Clifford Nicholson, a wealthy Lincolnshire landowner. Wearing Nicholson’s grey and scarlet colours, Paddy won five races over the Grand National fences, landing the Topham Trophy and back-to-back renewals of the Molyneux Chase on Stormhead, and consecutive runnings of the Becher Chase on State Secret and Ace of Trumps. He also won the Tote Investors’ Handicap Chase at Birmingham for Nicholson and Hall in 1958 on Casamba.

Paddy rode in six Grand Nationals, finishing third in 1961 on O’Malley Point. His role as stable jockey to Charlie Hall saw him crowned northern champion jockey in five consecutive seasons. He had ridden a total of 311 winners and was leading the northern jockeys’ table again when his career was ended by a fall in the 1964 Grand National, his mount Border Flight ploughing straight through the Chair, breaking Paddy’s back.

He was taken first to Walton Hospital and then on to Southport where he woke up, his wife, Mary, at his bedside. She was the first to tell him he’d broken his back and that he’d never walk again. The 33-year-old rider, a father of four young children, was paralysed from the waist down, confining him to a wheelchair for the rest of his life.

Clifford Nicholson promptly set about organising a fund for Paddy. The first donation came from Aintree itself, with Mirabel Topham giving £1,000 to set the ball rolling. The three American owners of Team Spirit, the horse that had won that year’s Grand National, gave £100 each.

Encouraged by that initial response, Nicholson then decided to widen the scope of the fund to include Tim Brookshaw, whose career had also been ended at Liverpool by a broken back three months earlier, when his mount Lucky Dora had crashed through the wings of a hurdle. Nicholson enlisted the help of Border Flight’s owner-trainer Edward Courage, along with soon-to-retire jockey Fred Winter, former amateur rider Wing Commander Peter Vaux, and John Lawrence, the leading amateur rider and journalist.

Seven days after the Grand National, the Sporting Life carried a front-page letter, stating that a fund had been opened for both Farrell and Brookshaw. The appeal rapidly gathered momentum. Within four days of the announcement in the Sporting Life, the organisers had received 1,000 letters, enclosing cheques for £100, £50, £20 and numerous lesser amounts. Lists of donors were published daily in the Sporting Life.

By May the ‘Life’ was able convey the news that, with donations by then standing at £47,000, the fund would thenceforth be known as the Farrell-Brookshaw Fund for Injured National Hunt Jockeys. All money received would be used not only for the assistance of those two riders, but for any other National Hunt jockeys who had suffered in the past, or may suffer seriously in the future.

The Farrell-Brookshaw Fund was the catalyst for the Injured National Hunt Jockeys Fund. Its remit was widened to include Flat jockeys in 1971 and duly renamed the Injured Jockeys Fund.

When sufficiently recovered from his injuries, Paddy went racing on a regular basis, particularly at York at Ripon and rarely missing a meeting at Wetherby, his local track. For a long time he was relatively mobile, in that he could drive his specially adapted car, but in later years he relied on others to get him around. He experienced severe stabbing pains and there were days when the spasms were hard to bear. He had acupuncture treatment every fortnight and benefitted from the Injured Jockeys Fund holidays in Tenerife where he was able to go swimming.

Paddy Farrell died on November 20, 1999, aged 69. He was buried in the place of his birth, County Wicklow.

His son Patrick was also a successful jump jockey.

Paddy Farrell’s biggest winners were:

Emblem Chase on Stormhead (1953)

Topham Trophy on Stormhead (1955)

Molyneux Chase twice on Stormhead (1955 & 1956)

Becher Chase twice on State Secret (1955) and Ace of Spies (1956)

Queen Elizabeth II Chase on State Secret (1956)

Tote Investors’ Handicap Chase on Casamba (1958)