Read about the exploits of Night Nurse and Sea Pigeon, two of the all-time greats who were both trained by Peter Easterby.
Night Nurse (Timeform rating 182)
Five horses might have won more Champion Hurdles, but Night Nurse holds the strongest claims to the title of ‘greatest hurdler’. For a start, his Timeform peak rating of 182 remains the highest ever awarded to a hurdler, whilst his second Champion Hurdle win in 1977 came at the height of what is widely regarded as the ‘golden era of hurdling’.
Indeed, that second Cheltenham win came in the classiest-ever field assembled for the Champion Hurdle, the fact that runner-up Monksfield and fourth-placed Sea Pigeon went on to win the next four renewals merely underlining the strength in depth.
All bar one of his 19 wins over hurdles came for the unfashionable veteran Paddy Broderick, whose distinctive upright riding style aboard the trail-blazing Night Nurse (dubbed "the machine of my career" by Broderick) was one of the most iconic racing images of the 1970s.
Night Nurse’s most powerful weapon was a rapid-fire jumping technique, his bold displays from the front largely explaining why he was a completely different proposition over hurdles than on the Flat.
The gelding’s other most famous trait was his willing attitude ("as brave as a lion" was Peter Easterby’s verdict), those battling qualities perhaps best exemplified in his memorable dead-heat with Monksfield in the 1977 Templegate Hurdle at Aintree.
That never-say-die attitude, combined with his trademark fluent jumping, stood Night Nurse in good stead once he was switched to the larger obstacles, his chasing career proving so successful that only stable-companion Little Owl prevented him completing the historic Champion Hurdle-Cheltenham Gold Cup double in 1981.
Connections decided to draw stumps with the immensely-popular Night Nurse on his 12th birthday, which prompted Chasers & Hurdlers 1982/83 to write: "For almost a decade the name Night Nurse has been synonymous with what is best in National Hunt racing. His retirement leaves a gap that will not be easily filled - he was a fine ambassador for jumping and must have made many a convert to the sport."
Sea Pigeon (175)
"Unique". That was how Timeform summed up Sea Pigeon in his final Chasers & Hurdlers entry, which predicted: "There is unlikely to be another quite like him – he leaves behind a racing record as a dual-purpose horse that may never be surpassed".
It should be stressed that Sea Pigeon was also an outstanding staying handicapper on the Flat for much of his jumping career, his numerous big prizes in that sphere including two Chester Cup wins and a memorable victory under top weight of 10st in the 1979 Ebor at York. It is his prowess as a hurdler that Sea Pigeon is best remembered for, though, and he was all about speed rather than stamina in that sphere.
His devastating turn of foot over the minimum trip helped him become a leading player in that six-year period which has been dubbed the ‘Golden Era of Hurdling’.
The fact that Sea Pigeon could claim his second Champion Hurdle title at the age of 11 (he remains the joint oldest winner in the race’s history) provides an illustration of the exalted levels achieved by his former sparring partners Night Nurse and Monksfield in the second half of the 1970s, particularly as that 1981 Cheltenham win saw him brush aside an up-to-scratch crop of younger hurdlers largely half his age.
Such remarkable longevity meant Sea Pigeon was the then-leading money earner in jumps history when his retirement was announced at the age of 12 in 1982.
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