Irish-born National Hunt jockey Patrick Joseph Foran rode two winners in Ireland before crossing the sea in 1959 to continue his career in Britain.
He worked for Roxburghshire trainer Harry Bell and made a good start, riding Argonaut to victory in the Scone Novices’ Hurdle at Perth on September 23, 1959. He rode a winner at Hexham three days later and another at Carlisle the following week. He then had to wait until Carlisle’s 1960 Easter Monday meeting for his next, on Lively Spirit in the Warnell Fell Handicap Hurdle, but then won on him again at Kelso and Hexham to finish the season with a score of six, all trained by Bell.
However, Paddy then endured a two and a half year wait before his next winner came along, Harry Bell’s novice hurdler Burgoyne at Catterick in November 1962. One more winner followed that season, Tommy Robson’s near white Tarquin Migol in a Hexham novice hurdle in May 1963. Tarquin Migol also gave Paddy his only win of the 1963/64 campaign, again at Hexham.
Soon afterwards, Paddy left for the USA, returning to Britain in 1966. Early in 1967 he joined trainer Bill Atkinson’s stable at Newtown, near Carlisle, and got the trainer off the mark for the season when winning on novice hurdler Coupador at Sedgefield on March 18.
Paddy’s riding career ended when he dislocated a hip in a fall from novice hurdler Sherry at Sedgefield on November 25, 1967. That was also the last day’s racing for six weeks, with all racing being cancelled as a precautionary measure against the spread of foot and mouth disease.
Paddy died on June 15, 2008, aged 67.
Paddy Foran’s British winners were, in chronological order:
1. Argonaut, Perth, September 23, 1959
2. Billycan, Hexham, September 26, 1959
3. Principality, Carlisle, October 3, 1959
4. Lively Spirit, Carlisle, 18 April 1960
5. Lively Spirit, Kelso, May 4, 1960
6. Lively Spirit, Hexham, May 7, 1960
7. Burgoyne, Catterick Bridge, November 3, 1962
8. Tarquin Migol, Hexham, May 4, 1963
9. Tarquin Migol, Hexham, May 16, 1964
10. Coupador, Sedgefield, March 18, 1967