- Night Nurse (horse)
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Night Nurse Sire Falcon Grandsire Milesian Dam Florence Nightingale Damsire Above Suspicion Sex Gelding Foaled 1971 Country Ireland, Cloghran Stud Colour Bay Breeder Eleanor Samuelson Owner R Spencer Trainer Peter Easterby Record 35 wins, 3 flat, 19 hurdles, 13 chases Earnings £174,507 Major wins Fighting Fifth Hurdle (1975)
Irish Sweeps Hurdle (1975)
Champion Hurdle (1976, 1977)
Scottish Champion Hurdle (1976)
Welsh Champion Hurdle (1976, 1977)
Templegate Hurdle (dead heat)(1977)
William Hill Hurdle
Free Handicap Hurdle
Sean Graham Trophy chase (1979)
Buchanan Whisky Gold Cup Chase (1979)
Mandarin Chase (1982)
Pennine Chase (1982)
Red Alligator Chase
London & Northern Group Chmp. Nov. ChaseAwards Timeform rating: 182 (hurdle)
(highest ever given for a hurdler)Horse (Equus ferus caballus) Last updated on 19 December 2009 Night Nurse (26th May 1971 - 1999) 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.[1]
- 182 - Night Nurse
- 180 - Istabraq, Monksfield
- 179 - Persian War
- 178 - Comedy of Errors, Le Sauvignon
- 177 - Lanzarote, Limestone Lad
- 176 - Bird's Nest, Bula, Golden Cygnet
- 175 - Baracouda, Gaye Brief, Salmon Spray, Sea Pigeon
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.[2]
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[citation needed]. 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. [3]
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. [4]References
- ^ http://www.timeform.com/show_article.asp?num=122
- ^ www.goffs-ireland.com/salesdata/63/pdf/150.pdf
- ^ http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/racing/article-440244/Champion-Hurdle-winners--10-best.html#ixzz0a4SO9IT5
- ^ http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/racing-night-nurse-put-down-at-the-age-of-28-1183125.html
External links
- pedigreequery.com – Night Nurse's pedigree
Categories:- 1971 racehorse births
- 1999 racehorse deaths
- Thoroughbred racehorses
- Cheltenham Festival winners
- Racehorses trained in the United Kingdom
- National Hunt racehorses
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