Monksfield 50th birth anniversary- how great? Bravest?

[harshthakor]

This year the jump racing world commemorates the 50th birthday of this great hurdler.Monksfield inspite of it’s diminutive size took resilience and will to battle in volumes rarely surpassed. There may have been speedier jumpers or horses blessed with more endurance, but for sheer spirit to overcome adversity few horses ever surpassed Monksfield. Few jumpers ever possessed more were a manifestation of the unflinching courage of a soldier.Monksfield was the epitome of determination and temperament. Without doubt one of sport’s best loved characters.

Witnessing Monksfield charge down he Cheltenham hill was reminiscent of an Olympian Athlete conserving all his energies to deliver a knockout punch to his rivals. After the last when winning he would come home like an army battalion ressurected from dire straits to victory. No hurdler scaled spirit of relentlessness as Monskfied did when dead heating with Night Nurse at Aintree in 1977 in the Templegate hurdle,or when defying a challenge from Sea Pigeon in the 1978 and 1979 Champion Hurdle.
The background of this horse could comprise a separate book in itself, like a trip in a wonder land.Monskield was bred in a 3rd attempt by Peter Ryan ,inspite of having scant knowledge about horses.

Monskfield was purchased as a 2 year old for just 740 Guineas by Des McDonoh.He was bred by an astronomy expert called Peter Ryan ,who lived in Fulham.His sire was Gala Performance and mother was Regina,Monskfield came to be owned by Dr MichaelMangan,a radiologist working in Newfoundland.

Monksfield set his first feet on the track in flat races. In Newfoundland in 1973 with Ken Coogan astride,Monksfield startled everyone, triumphing by ¾ of a length.
Monksfield made his debut in hurdles in a handicap at Navan and finished as runner p to Peterhof in the Daily Express Triumph Hurdle.

In 1977 he was beaten by 3 lengths in his first Champion Hurdle.Later in the Templegate hurdle Monskfield and Night Nurse took intensity of tussle in battle for supremacy in sport to its highest magnitude .After looking doomed Monsfiled reurected like a phoenix from the Ashes. That day viewers witnessed one of sport’s great spectacles.

In 1978 he warded of a challenge by Sea Pigeon from the turn who drew level and seemed destined to overtake the little man, to ultimately run his rival off his legs. The Irish cheers in the crowd was reminiscent of the welcome received by great emperor.

Two weeks later Monskfield convincingly defeated old rival Night Nurse in the Templegate Hurdle.

In 1979 in the Champion Hurdle Se Pigeon was much graver threat to the little colt and seemed to have gained the upper hand after touching down the last. However Monskield’s drew the maximum courage to untap all the reserves of energy within him an like a boxer resurrecting himself from the floor, clawed himself back to achieve a glorious victory. Endurance and courage won the day for the little stalwart. Rarely had courage transcended such volumes or a horse pegged himself as spectacularly in competitive jump race .This time Dessie Hughes replaced Tommy Kinane as Monksfield’s rider,whose 3 cracks with the whip proved vital in turning the result. It is hard to describe how deep the little colt dug his legs into the ground ,responding o the urge from jockey Hughes,to pull his head in front 100 yards out.Julian Wilson described it as “ The greatest display of raw courage ever seen at Cheltenham.”Argubaly no jumping peformance was a greater testimony of Courage in the Cheltenham festival.

In 1979 Monskfied seemed on the way to achieving a hatrick of champion Hurdles when sailing in the lead till the last .However at the start of the run in the petrol in the colt’s tank seemed to have be completely consumed .Monskfeld surrendered like an Emperor bowing down gracefully in defeat. The shortening of the distance and the virgin ground had an adverse effect on the outcome, with Sea Pigeon coasting home by margin of 7 lengths and Monkey looking stopped in his tracks.Although a sad farewell ,it was handled most sportingly by e connections and crowd.The little champion was not disgraced in defeat.
He went on to achieve a most emphatic victory in the Welsh Champion Hurdle in 1979.
Monksfiled was retired to Amgrove Stud in Mount Mellick.Co Laouis.

Monksield ranks amongst the 5 greatest hurdlers ever, rated only behind Night Nurse,Persian war by Racing Post ,and above stars like Sea Pigeon, Bula, Sir Ken and Comedy of Errors.Unlike Persian war,Hatton’s Grace and Isatbraq he ddi not achive hatrick or quadruple .However he possibly faced more competitive opponents like Night Nurse and Sea Pigeon.In a less competitive era he may have even won 4 champion hurdles.

I recommend everyone to raid Jonathan Powell’s book on Monksfield.

[IanDavies]

I love these threads but, as stated on the Silver Buck one, it seems a slight shame to me that they challenge all and sundry to potentially criticise these wonderful horses by putting their talents under the relative spotlight.

On this occasion, however, it’s not hard to be positive.

Any younger reader trying to get their head around the “Golden era” of hurdling and watching YouTube videos might struggle to see what the fuss was about.

Plenty of close finishes.

But when Night Nurse won his first Champion Hurdle in 1976 he beat a truly vintage field containing Comedy Of Errors, Lanzarote and Birds Nest.

This set the standard and when the following year in 1977 Night Nurse had to dig deep to fend off Monksfield with Dramatist, Sea Pigeon and Birds Nest in behind this was arguably as good a Champion Hurdle as there’s ever been.

After dead-heating with Night Nurse at Liverpool, Monksfield avenged that defeat the following year, beating Sea Pigeon in 1978 with Night Nurse only third.

And Monksfield doubled up in 1979 the next year, beating Sea Pigeon (who went on to win the next two Champion Hurdles in 1980 and 1981).

Monksfield was a truly great dual Champion Hurdler in his prime, better at his peak than Sea Pigeon (though he was produced too soon IMO in 1979) and second only to Night Nurse in his prime in that era.

Only Persian War could be mentioned in the same breath before and only Istabraq has thus far reached a similar level since, though I think Constitution Hill is poised to.

And there are those who say the ill-fated novice of that time Golden Cygnet might have been better than all of them.

But Monksfield was a true great, no doubt about that.

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[LD73]

Tough as old boots in an era where there were very few level weight races so many of the stars regularly mixed it in big handicaps under even bigger weights.

Easily in top 10 hurdlers of all time but Night Nurse rightly sits at the top of the tree – remember in the dead heat at Aintree with Monksfield he was trying to give Monkey 6lbs.

His Champion Hurdle wins were in very testing conditions that rightly played to his strengths of stamina and a never say die attitude once eyeballed by a rival – when it comes to bravest hurdlers he would be up there fighting for the top spot alongside Night Nurse, Hardy Eustace & Brave Inca.

[Gladiateur]

Monksfield was definitely the second best hurdler of all time, in my opinion, and arguably the toughest, although I don’t know how anyone can measure toughness. 🤔

Istabraq was overrated.

That is all.

[LD73]

Glad – Fully agree with your second point, a very good Champion Hurdler but delusional to think he was (with Monksfield) rated the joint second best of all time.

For me that grates almost as much as how much Sea Pigeon is underrated and below Le Sauvignon???, Limestone Lad, Birds Nest & Faugheen in the ratings.

Some of his handicap performances (winning under 12st 2lbs, 12st 6lbs and 12st 7lbs including conceeding 26lbs and giving a 16L beating to a subsequent Schweppes/Betfair Hurdle winner and winning many times on FIRM ground…imagine that) would probably give heart failure to the trainers of the more recent era of pampered Champion Hurdlers.

Lets not forget that most of his jumping exploits we all coming off the back of full flat campaigns where he was winning Chester Cups, an Ebor under the still record weight of 10st and failing by a neck to conceed 27lbs to a certain dual Ascot Gold Cup winner in Le Moss (again on FIRM ground).

He wasn’t the greatest of all time but he mixed it with a lot of the usual suspects in that debate and with over a 50% stirke rate on all his hurdle runs, a 175 rating I don’t think truly reflects how good he was.

That era were a real tough breed of truly battle hardened horses that didn’t duck and dive each other or get wrapped up in cotton wool and ran multiple more times a season on whatever ground came up…..and they came back year on year to do it.

[Gladiateur]

Agree with all of that, LD. I’d have Sea Pigeon third, behind Night Nurse and Monksfield.

[befair]

I was at Leopardstown, Xmas 1981 (I think) when Monksfield carried top weight into 3rd. The rain had been hammering down for days and the ground was like a quagmire, virtually unraceable, but there was no question of him being being withdrawn.

[pilgarlic]

I think he was 2nd in the best handicap hurdle I ever came across, the 1978 Royal Doulton at Haydock. He conceded lumps of weight to Royal Gaye who’d become really well handicapped after disappointing for a while. Plenty of the top hurdlers finished behind including Night Nurse and Sea Pigeon.

I haven’t the perspective now to judge the relative merits of the top hurdlers in that great era but I think it’s worth throwing this race into the mix.

[IanDavies]

That was a cracking race – and yet another reminder of how much more open and competitive NH was back then.

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[Gladiateur]

The first four in the 1978 Champion Hurdle, plus Bird’s Nest (who had gone off co-second favourite at Cheltenham but disappointed) and three Aintree winners plus the Imperial Cup winner, all ran in that inaugural Royal Doulton Hurdle… on good to firm ground.

The course record was broken by over seven seconds that day.

[IanDavies]

Way back then, while I thought it was great, I just took it for granted this was the way NH was and always would be.

How wrong I was.

That’s what makes the way NH is nowadays so hard to stomach.

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[befair]

The Royal Doulton is another race to have fallen on hard times; prize-money was really big when it was launched, no so much now. Plus the Punchestown festival was much less important then e.g. no Grade 1 hurdle

[LD73]

They didn’t have many options so big valuable handicaps were always on the agenda as connections were not as precious about running their top horses in them under big weights.

Interesting to note that the first running of the Royal Doulton the winner picked up just over £20k making it at the time the 4th biggest pot behind the Grand National, Gold Cup & Champion Hurdle…..no wonder the top horses were aimed at it.

Back then it was the Fighting Fifth, Christmas Hurdle which to this day mostly retain their importance whilst the Welsh & Scotish Champion Hurdles were very much coverted prizes back in the day as shown by the multiple Champion Hurdlers that appear on their role of honour.

The Welsh version in its first 11 runnings was won by Persian War, Bula, Comedy of Errors, Lanzarote, Night Nurse (twice), Monksfield and Sea Pigeon and the Scotish version in a 4 year period was won by Comedy of Errors, Night Nurse & Sea Pigeon (twice).

Sadly neither race hold anywhere near the same importance as they once did in those halcyon days and are both now limited handicaps.

[befair]

I seem to remember Monksfield was a May foal, so his efforts as a juvenile hurdler were even more admirable.
Given that Tuesday is June foal, is she open to more improvement than her peers? I don’t recall month of birth ever being emphasised before

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