Greatest Racehorses: Monksfield 1w4254

Pedigree Details

Sire: Gala Performance

Dam: Regina

Dam’s Sire: Tulyar

Breeder: Peter Ryan

Foaled: 1972

Race Record & Factfile:

Hurdle Races: 49

Wins: 14

Owner: Dr Michael Mangan

Trainer: Des McDonogh

Profile

Although his strike rate may not be quite so impressive as many of the hurdling greats, it would be wrong to underestimate the ultra-tough Monksfield’s achievements. Indeed, most people in racing (Timeform included) were guilty of underestimating the diminutive Monksfield at some stage during his career. Co-breeder Arthur Ryan wasn’t impressed with the colt during his formative days ("as soon as he began to trot and gambol around the field I spotted his appalling action"), a view which was shared by potential buyers when he failed to sell as a foal at the 1972 Goffs September Sales. Yet rookie trainer Des McDonoagh was smitten ("I loved that head, that fabulous head, the instant I saw it") when Monksfield next went to the sales as a two-year-old and, having snapped him up for just 740 guineas, the rest is history.

Monksfield’s battles with the Peter Easterby-trained pair Night Nurse and Sea Pigeon formed the centrepiece of the ‘golden era of hurdling’ in the second half of the 1970s, his supremely game displays earning him plenty of fans on both sides of the Irish Sea. His two Champion Hurdle wins during this era earned him a Timeform rating of 180, which places him t second (together with Istabraq) behind Night Nurse in the firm’s historic rankings for hurdlers. The fact that Monksfield contested a higher number of handicaps than most leading hurdlers contributed to that comparatively modest strike rate, which is unfair as he actually posted some of his greatest performances in defeat when lumping huge weights.  

1975/76 Season

Handicaps were quickly on the agenda for Monksfield over hurdles and he contested no fewer than seven of them during his juvenile campaign, winning twice (at Navan and Fairyhouse) to add to his two wins in juveniles which had kicked off the season. The highlight of that 1975/76 campaign, however, was his second place in the Triumph Hurdle at Cheltenham, where 28/1 outsider Monksfield was deemed unlucky by plenty of onlookers after being hampered by both Mwanandike (fourth) and Peterhof (winner) in the latter stages. Monksfield’s heavy workload during that first hurdling campaign was hardly surprising given he’d already had plenty of experience on the Flat (he continued to race on the Flat for much of his hurdling career), including a third place off a lowly weight in the previous autumn’s Irish Cesarewitch. Chasers & Hurdlers 1975/76 attributed the bargain buy’s durability to his sire Gala Performance, who was tough Flat performer in the US, as opposed to his lightly-raced dam Regina (who hailed from a good Aga Khan family). Nevertheless, the book predicted that Monksfield "probably lacks the physical scope to make a really good horse".

1976/77 Season

"We owe Monksfield an apology" is how the colt’s essay in Chasers & Hurdlers 1976/77 began, detailing how he’d defied expectations and blossomed into one of the finest hurdlers around. In fairness, it looked for much of the winter as though he might be just a minor player in the top races, including when finishing third to outsider Master Monday and British veteran Comedy of Errors in the Irish Champion Hurdle.

That said, he’d performed better than his form figures might have suggested, running plenty of good races under big weights in handicap company, including when winning at Fairyhouse and Navan. Nevertheless, Monksfield was the 15/1 seventh choice of ten in a vintage renewal of the Champion Hurdle itself. He emerged as the main challenger to Night Nurse, though, and might have pushed that rival even closer but for a mistake at the last, eventually going down by two lengths. He would never lose to Night Nurse again. The pair of them served up one of National Hunt’s greatest ever races when dead-heating (Night Nurse was conceding 6lb to Monksfield) in an epic battle for the Templegate Hurdle at Aintree just 17 days later, the fact there were 15 lengths back to third-placed Peterhof a further illustration of Monksfield’s improvement.   

Major races won

• Templegate Hurdle, Aintree

1977/78 Season

Monksfield’s remarkable courage in the face of an eyeball-to-eyeball duel was to become his hallmark, though he had to overcame a battle of a different kind in the autumn of 1978. A defeat at 3/1-on in a minor event at Down Royal (followed by a similarly lifeless display on the Flat shortly afterwards) signalled that something was seriously wrong with Monksfield, who subsequently endured horrendous swelling on his off-hind leg. A dismayed McDonagh feared the worst as the infection took hold: "The flesh melted off him so swiftly I was sure we would lose him, that he would die." Vets finally stumbled upon a cure after a lengthy period of uncertainty, but it meant Monksfield arrived at Cheltenham on Champion Hurdle day with no hurdling wins to his name since that famous Merseyside dead-heat. He’d been working his way back to full fitness on both comeback runs since that enforced mid-season lay-off, though, and put up top-class performance to go one place better than 12 months earlier, harrying old rival Night Nurse some way out and always holding the upper hand after taking over at the second-last – Sea Pigeon chased him home two lengths adrift, with a further six lengths back to Night Nurse.

It was popular win for Monksfield’s veteran jockey Tommy Kinane (whose then-teenage son Mick also partnered the colt to several wins on the Flat), but he was forced to miss out on the ride at Aintree through injury for the second year running. As in 1977, Dessie Hughes deputised and the prize was all Monksfield’s this time as he beat the deteriorating Night Nurse (who was receiving 5 lb) by two lengths. He arguably bettered even that run when rounding off 77/78 with a tremendous weight-carrying performance in the inaugural running of the very valuable Royal Doulton Hurdle at Haydock, failing by just three-quarters of a length to concede 28 lb to the winner Royal Gaye – Night Nurse (again receiving 5 lb) was two-and-a-half lengths away in third, whilst Sea Pigeon and fellow leading hurdlers Bird's Nest and Beacon Light finished down the field.    

Major races won

• Champion Hurdle, Cheltenham
• Templegate Hurdle, Aintree

1978/79 Season

The 1979 Champion Hurdle was labelled "a race so moving that it brought tears to the eyes" by John Oaksey in his report for Horse & Hound magazine. Certainly it was a contest on a par with the 1977 Templegate Hurdle for excitement, whilst Monksfield’s dogged refusal to bow to Sea Pigeon in the latter stages left its mark on everyone who witnessed it – he’d looked a sitting duck when Sea Pigeon loomed up under Jonjo O’Neill between the last two flights, yet knuckled down courageously to win by three-quarters of a length (with a further 15 lengths back to third-placed Beacon Light).

As in 77/78, however, things hadn’t gone to plan during the build-up to the big race. After a routine comeback win at Down Royal, Monksfield then ran several honourable races in defeat when conceding lumps of weight all round, including when third in the Irish Sweeps Hurdle at Leopardstown. Kinane’s ride came in for criticism that day, though, and a subsequent flop in the Irish Champion Hurdle saw him controversially jocked off (with Hughes taking his place permanently) just before Cheltenham. Monksfield ended the campaign in a rich vein of form, claiming a third win in the Aintree race (Sea Pigeon was held in third when falling at the last) before beating Bird's Nest (who was receiving 5 lb) to win the Welsh Champion Hurdle at Chepstow and then finishing runner-up under top weight again in the Royal Doulton Hurdle (conceding 13 lb to winner Beacon Light).

Major races won

• Champion Hurdle, Cheltenham
• Colt Sigma Hurdle, Aintree
• Welsh Champion Hurdle, Chepstow

1979/80 Season

Rather like Night Nurse when bidding for his third Champion Hurdle win, Monksfield wasn’t at his very best in 79/80 – his only win came in a late-season amateur riders’ event at Down Royal, where he was ridden by the trainer’s wife Helen (who’d only recently given birth to Declan McDonogh). That didn’t stop him being sent off the 6/5 favourite at Cheltenham, but he proved no match on this occasion for Sea Pigeon, who quickened seven lengths clear on the run-in (Monksfield held off another old rival Bird's Nest for second). His bid for a fourth straight win at Aintree also ended in a below-par second to younger rival Pollardstown. Jonjo O’Neill was on board at Aintree (Hughes retired from riding when injured in a fall 24 hours after the Champion Hurdle), but it was somewhat fitting that Kinane got the call for Monksfield’s final appearance on a racecourse, when he finished down the field in the Royal Doulton Hurdle. He was subsequently retired to stud, where he enjoyed moderate success as a jumps stallion prior to his death in 1989 (he is buried at McDonogh’s County Meath yard). 

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