Night Nurse (horse)
Encyclopedia
Night Nurse was an Irish
bred English
trained National Hunt
racehorse sired by Falcon.
Timeform
rated Night Nurse at 182, the highest rating ever awarded to a hurdler.
Night Nurse garnered 35 wins, winning a total of £174,507 viz. He won 3 races on the flat at 3 and 4-years old and placed 3 times; he also won 32 steeplechase
races, 19 wins over hurdles and 13 wins over fences from 64 starts.
He won 10 consecutive hurdle races from 1976 in a season that included the Welsh, English and Scottish Champion hurdle hat-trick.
Night Nurse's second victory in the Champion Hurdle is widely regarded as the highest-quality race ever run over timber.
His Peter Easterby-trained stablemate Sea Pigeon, a future dual winner, was only fourth, with the great Monksfield beaten by two lengths into second.
A last-flight mistake contributed to the runner-up's defeat, and the pair's rematch at Aintree shortly after in the Templegate Hurdle is still talked about now.
It was jump racing's most famous ever dead-heat.
Night Nurse was ridden in many of his early races by the Irishman Paddy Broderick whose long-rein style perfectly suited the horse's way of running.
The gelding featured in one of the most exciting races of recent decades when dead-heating with Monksfield for the 1977 Templegate Hurdle at Aintree, the race before Red Rum's third Grand National win.
Night Nurse was successfully switched to chasing and was several times fancied to win the Gold Cup but the closest he came was when second to Little Owl in 1981.
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
bred English
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
trained National Hunt
National Hunt racing
National Hunt racing is the official name given to the sport of horse racing in the United Kingdom, France and Ireland in which the horses are required to jump over obstacles called hurdles or fences...
racehorse sired by Falcon.
Timeform
Timeform
Timeform Publications is a publishing company in Halifax, West Yorkshire, England founded in 1948 to provide information to fans, bettors, and others involved in the horse racing industry...
rated Night Nurse at 182, the highest rating ever awarded to a hurdler.
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, MonksfieldMonksfieldMonksfield was an Irish-trained National Hunt racehorse who won the Champion Hurdle in 1978 and 1979.There was never much of Monksfield, but his small frame hid an attitude of great determination. If it came to a fight Monksfield would not only want to be in it, he would expect to win it... - 179 - Persian War
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, Le Sauvignon - 177 - Lanzarote, Limestone Lad
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, Gaye Brief, Salmon Spray, Sea PigeonSea PigeonSea Pigeon was a racehorse who excelled in both National Hunt and flat racing.As a son of the great Derby winner Sea Bird II, Sea Pigeon was bred to be a high class horse on the flat, but his efforts as a three-year-old were slightly lacklustre - trained by Jeremy Tree, he ran in the 1973 Epsom...
Night Nurse garnered 35 wins, winning a total of £174,507 viz. He won 3 races on the flat at 3 and 4-years old and placed 3 times; he also won 32 steeplechase
Steeplechase
Steeplechase may refer to:* Steeplechase, an event in horse racing* SteepleChase, a Danish jazz label* Steeplechase , a 1975 arcade game released by Atari...
races, 19 wins over hurdles and 13 wins over fences from 64 starts.
He won 10 consecutive hurdle races from 1976 in a season that included the Welsh, English and Scottish Champion hurdle hat-trick.
Night Nurse's second victory in the Champion Hurdle is widely regarded as the highest-quality race ever run over timber.
His Peter Easterby-trained stablemate Sea Pigeon, a future dual winner, was only fourth, with the great Monksfield beaten by two lengths into second.
A last-flight mistake contributed to the runner-up's defeat, and the pair's rematch at Aintree shortly after in the Templegate Hurdle is still talked about now.
It was jump racing's most famous ever dead-heat.
Night Nurse was ridden in many of his early races by the Irishman Paddy Broderick whose long-rein style perfectly suited the horse's way of running.
The gelding featured in one of the most exciting races of recent decades when dead-heating with Monksfield for the 1977 Templegate Hurdle at Aintree, the race before Red Rum's third Grand National win.
Night Nurse was successfully switched to chasing and was several times fancied to win the Gold Cup but the closest he came was when second to Little Owl in 1981.
External links
- pedigreequery.com – Night Nurse's pedigree