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Night Nurse (horse)

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Night Nurse
SireFalcon
GrandsireMilesian
DamFlorence Nightingale
DamsireAbove Suspicion
SexGelding
Foaled1964
CountryIreland, Cloghran Stud
ColourBay
BreederEleanor Samuelson
OwnerR Spencer
TrainerPeter Easterby
Record35 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 with Monksfield (1977)
William Hill Hurdle
Free Handicap Hurdle
Sean Graham Trophy chase (1979)
Buchanan Whisky Gold Cup Chase (1979)
Mandarin Chase (1982)
Pennine Chase (1982)
London & Northern Group Chmp. Nov. Chase
Last updated on 18 December 2009

Night Nurse (foaled 1964) 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]


35 wins, £174,507 viz. 3 wins on the flat at 3 and 4 and placed 3 times; also 19 wins over hurdles and 13 wins over fences.[2]


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. [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