Sid Foster

Sid Foster

Article by Alan Trout

Sid Foster was apprenticed to Joe Lawson and rode without success on the Flat in 1931. However, he fared better under National Hunt rules in the years immediately following World War Two with three wins, all in the first half of 1946. 

The first of these was gained at Windsor on January 11, when Le Cure won the Keates Lane Novices’ Hurdle (Division 2) by half a length from Smoky, the mount of Ron Smyth. The four-year-old Le Cure had been placed in both of his previous starts with Sid on board. They duly followed up at Windsor’s next meeting on February 16 with victory in the Stoke Poges Handicap Hurdle, scoring by just a short head. 

After the race, the stewards asked Fred Rickaby, rider of the runner-up Swanee River, why his horse had not kept a straight course after jumping the last flight. They accepted his explanation.

Sid then partnered Le Cure in the County Hurdle at Cheltenham’s National Hunt meeting on March 14, but they were unplaced. 

His third, and final, win was gained a few weeks later when Noble Ant was successful in the Novices’ Hurdle (Division 2) at Wincanton on May 16. The four-year-old had been unplaced in his two previous outings for Sid but managed to beat the gallant 15-year-old Bondsman (which had finished eleventh in the 1934 Derby under Joe Childs), ridden by his trainer Sid Warren, by half a length. 

Although Sid Foster kept a licence until the 1947/48 season, there were no more wins.