Irish National Hunt jockey Matthew Curran, always known as Matt, was riding only his sixth winner when partnering 7-1 chance Vulpine to win the 1967 Irish Grand National. In so doing, they ended a remarkable seven-year run of consecutive Irish Grand National winners trained by Tom Dreaper, a sequence that had begun with Olympia in 1960 and ended with Flyingbolt in 1966.
Like his father Paddy Curran before him, Matt worked for Vulpine’s trainer Paddy Mullins at Goresbridge, Co. Kilkenny. Matt shared the bulk of the stable’s mounts with Mick Brennan. There was no discernible pattern but, by and large, Matt rode the chasers and Mick rode the hurdlers.
Matt finished second on Vulpine in the 1969 Irish Grand National, beaten three lengths by Sweet Dreams, the mount of Bobby Coonan.
He won a second Irish Grand National on another Paddy Mullins-trained horse, the seven-year-old Dim Wit in 1972, beating Beggar’s Way by eight lengths. Matt had already ridden Dim Wit to victory in that year’s Thyestes Chase at Gowran Park and also the 1971 Arkle Perpetual Challenge Cup Chase at Leopardstown.
Sadly, Dim Wit was not to be rewarded with a long and honourable retirement, for he was to collapse and die at the end of a race at Punchestown. An equally premature demise awaited Matt Curran, who died suddenly in his Goresbridge home on February 2, 1994, aged 51, leaving a widow and five children.
His son, Sean Curran, also worked for Paddy Mullins before riding under National Hunt rules in Britain and later becoming a trainer, based at Highworth, near Swindon.
