WITH the Cheltenham Festival now 13 days away, the Sun Racing team will be bringing you their ‘Festival 50’ every day between now and 10 March.
We will salute the Prestbury Park heroes that made us fall in love with the Festival, all the way until the ‘Cheltenham roar’ signals that the wait is finally over.
Number 13: Monksfield
Unlucky for some, but not for the legendary Monksfield.
Splitting Des McDonogh’s hero, Night Nurse and Sea Pigeon was an impossible task, but they all needed to be in this list.
The late 70s was as good as it gets when you talk about hurdlers.
On numbers the 1977 Champion Hurdle was rated the best of all time. But watching it out of pure joy, you could come to the same conclusion.
Monksfield would miss out that year. But he made more than amends in the next two renewals. He’d win both the 1978 and 1979 Champion Hurdles, before again filling the runner-up spot in 1980 behind Sea Pigeon.
He was a model of consistency at the very highest echelons of the sport. These were no mugs either, they would bully the lot gunning for glory this year at Prestbury Park.
The horse cost less than a grand and was also second in a Truimph Hurdle for good measure.
Many from the golden era believe Monksfield should have also won the 1977 Champion Hurdle too, a view echoed by his jockey.
“The following year I told the owner and Des McDonogh I wanted no instructions, just let me do my thing and Id win. And we did. We beat Night Nurse and Sea Pigeon,” said Tommy Kinane.
In his typically untrendy style, Monksfield was first to turn in and despite the Irish raider looking vulnerable briefly approaching the last, he asserted up the run in and saw off Sea Pigeon.
It was a similar story in 1979, this time with Dessie Hughes in the saddle, as the pair slipped the field early and kicked on.
But Sea Pigeon travelled better into the race this time around and took the lead in style in the final stages. But that’s where ‘Little Monksfield’ came alive.
He battled back as they went stride for stride. It was some sight and typical of that generation.
We can only dream of an era like that rears its head again.
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