Yesterday’s hero
Graham Buddry recalls Night Nurse versus Monksfield
Graham Buddry looks back at Night Nurse and Monksfield
There have been many great races through the years with different elements conspiring together to give that right mix. In 1977 at Aintree we were lucky enough to have one of the finest of these great races ever concocted as two high class horses at the top of their game, each considered the best in their own country, and both exceptionally popular, went head to head.
This would be the second running of an event over 2m 5 ½ f designed specifically to attract the best hurdlers around. The inaugural running had already proved a great success when the brilliant Comedy Of Errors had just gotten the better of the globe-trotting Grand Canyon by a short head in the dying strides after a marathon battle.
By a quirk of fate, however, the 1977 renewal was almost completely overshadowed at the time as on that day, April 2nd , and just a little later that same afternoon, Red Rum won a record breaking third Grand National which deservedly made headlines around the world.
As an appetiser of the highest possible class for Red Rum’s own leap into immortality there were two protagonists, each far different from the other. One, Night Nurse, could best be described as pure class, one of the most natural jumpers ever seen in the game. The other was Monksfield,
probably as tough a battler as ever there was who would find more and yet more again the harder he was ridden and asked, never knowing how to give in. To add further intrigue Night Nurse was trained by Peter Easterby in England while Monksfield was trained by Des McDonogh in Ireland and each country lauded their own champion.
Night Nurse was the reigning Champion Hurdler, having won his second title the previous month with Monksfield in second place. In that Golden Age of hurdling his two victories had seen him ahead of not just Monksfield but the likes of Comedy Of Errors, Lanzarote, Bird’s Nest, Dramatist and Sea Pigeon. There was little doubt that Night Nurse was one of the best ever seen over hurdles and his Timeform rating of 182 gained that afternoon at Aintree is even now the highest ever accorded a hurdler.
At Cheltenham in March, Night Nurse accounted for Monksfield, unusually still an entire rather than a gelding, by two lengths. Night Nurse led all the way, jumping superbly, to repel all challengers one by one. The last to mount a challenge was Monksfield, already running in his eleventh race of the season, but as he drew level at the final flight he flattened it and lost what chance he may have had. Tommy Kinane remained adamant after the race that if he had cleared the last flight cleanly he would have prevailed. Not a soul in England agreed with him.
Future events would show that Night Nurse was admittedly passing his best over timber, finishing third and fourth in the next two Champion Hurdles, as Monksfield won the crown on both occasions before failing in his own bid for the hat-trick in an epic race with Sea Pigeon. Monksfield’s own Timeform rating of 180, joint second on the all time list with Istabraq, shows just what an era this was and what a clash of the titans Aintree was about to witness.
With the spectacle of Red Rum still to come, the runners for the Templegate Hurdle took to the track. This would be far different from the undulations and two mile distance of their last meeting at Cheltenham for Aintree was a flat track and the distance was more than half a mile further. Equally, while Paddy Broderick would retain
“Night Nurse’s Timeform rating of 182 gained at Aintree is still the highest ever accorded a hurdler ”
the ride on Night Nurse, Monksfield’s regular partner, Tommy Kinane, had been injured just two days earlier when his mount in the Topham Trophy fell heavily three out and he was replaced by Dessie Hughes, fresh from his Cheltenham Gold Cup victory on Davy Lad. Hughes would become Monksfield’s regular jockey as the pair embarked on an indomitable partnership.
The other significant difference was that here Night Nurse would be conceding six pounds in weight to his Irish rival yet he would still be sent off the 4/5 favourite while Monksfield started at 7/2. In the field of ten only one other horse was even remotely considered and that was the 10/1 shot, Peterhof, who had beaten Monksfield into second place in the Triumph Hurdle at Cheltenham 13 months previously.
Prior to the race the usual English / Irish verbal sparring took place with the Night Nurse camp confident they would still put the invader from the Emerald Isle in his place despite the concession of six pounds. For their part the Monksfield camp maintained it was only the last flight error which had cost their charge the Champion Hurdle crown 17 days earlier.
Night Nurse preferred to lead his field and that is exactly what he did at Aintree, setting off at a fierce gallop and jumping imperiously while Monksfield tracked him every inch of the way, all the time being pushed and kicked along to stay with the leader. Peterhof and the rest also tried their best to make a race of it but on the day they were patently outclassed, yet it wasn’t until three out that the yawning gaps started to open up with Peterhof eventually finishing a distant 15 lengths back in third.
It was also at this third last flight that the race took an unexpected turn. Easterby had maintained that Night Nurse was the most natural and brilliant jumper he had ever seen yet he stood far too far off and landed coming down on top of the hurdle. Broderick stated later it frightened the life out of him while Hughes conceded that until that point Night Nurse had them beaten all ends up. The race was now on in earnest yet Night Nurse still looked to be cruising, well in control while the little terrier that was Monksfield came under even more pressure as he closed ominously on the leader.
Quickly Night Nurse, too, was rousted along to keep the challenger at bay as they approached the penultimate flight. Night Nurse was wary after his earlier scare and jumped carefully while Monksfield responded again and again as he always did under pressure and took a neck lead down to the final flight. By the time they reached it they were level again, Monksfield hopping over the obstacle with the minimum of fuss while Night Nurse jinked to his left as he jumped, but they both landed together and began the long sprint for the line. Hitting the furlong marker there was absolutely nothing in it, the sheer class of Night Nurse giving all he had and the tough-as-teak Monsfield fighting as he always did and
always would do. Slowly, inch by inch Monksfield pulled ahead: not by far but enough to be decisive.
Fifty yards to the line and Monksfield still held that small advantage and he was never one to stop or relinquish a challenge, fighting hard every step of the way. Twenty yards to go and Night Nurse, the champion, found those precious extra reserves that define the greatest and slowly fought back, the gap closing, closing. The post came as the ecstatic crowds cheered both warriors to the full but it was desperately close, neither jockey knowing who had won, a photograph being required to separate the two gladiators.
The thrill of the crowd at what they had just witnessed was amazing, the din of excitement intense as the horses were led in, both receiving the warmest cheers from the packed and knowledgeable crowd. In the enclosures neither entered the place reserved for the winner, instead choosing to loiter on the periphery, not daring to tempt fate and connections beamed and glowed in the radiance of a race they knew even then had been something extra special to behold. Surreptitiously everyone concerned as well as the massed crowds double checked the number cloths of the pair as electricity still filled the air waiting for the judge to confirm the final placings.
Suddenly an eerie silence descended over Aintree as the public address system eventually crackled into life. “Here is the result of the photograph… first place is a dead heat.” There could not have been a finer result.
Monksfield and Night Nurse had now met twice, each race producing a thrilling climax. Monksfield would win all of their three remaining encounters as he matured and Night Nurse started to decline over hurdles before embarking on a further brilliant career over the bigger obstacles. Incidentally, when stalking Monksfield to win the first of his own brace of Champion Hurdles, that would be the only time in six meetings that Sea Pigeon would ever finish ahead of the renowned Irish battler too.
Monksfield would go on to win the next two renewals of both the Aintree Hurdle and the Champion Hurdle to firmly cement his own place in racing history, alongside that of Night Nurse.
Still generally overlooked by the epic Grand National that was to follow, this race still holds a magical place for connoisseurs of our sport as the cream of English and Irish hurdling went head to head. As the baton of champion started to change hands in this Golden Age of hurdling excellence, Night Nurse and Monksfield produced one of the greatest races ever seen over timber and contrived to provide us with that most perfect of results.