Favourite Gold Cups of the past

I prefer my chasers but Istabraq is by far my favourite hurdler. He couldn't fail to be really, given the ones I've seen in my lifetime.

Night Nurse versus Istabraq...

Strangely, I've never had that debate with my family. I'll have to watch more of NN before I do otherwise I'll just sound like an upstart!
 
Katharine said:
The winning distances would support that argument but I don't agree. It looked hard for her in the Gold Cup, and Jonjo certainly whipped all kinds out of her but I'm in the camp that believes she would have won off levels.

I've seen stats defied at Cheltenham in the last couple of years but her double could remain unique in my lifetime at least.

She was a smashing mare.
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I totally agree a brilliant mare and I very much doubt any mare will ever do that double again but likely she would ahve been beaten to it if a injury free Night Nurse turned up or on better ground Bula would have completed the double. If my memory serves me Lanzarote was also in with a great chance too until breaking a leg 4 out but ive never seen footage of that race since that day so can't be totally sure. On the tragic end to poor Silver Buck he really did deserve a long retirement i recently bought his 1979 Sun Alliance Chase and he really would have won that that if given a more positive ride.
 
Istabraq was brilliant but was unfortunate..or fortunate that during his time we never had a wealth of hurdling talent..as that article describes.

See You Then was similar in that respect..Isty was obviously better than SYT but it would have been great to have HE BI & Harchibald with Isty...we would surely have had another golden era

I think we have had a mini golden era with the last 3 named..I can see similariteies there with the seventies horses

Brave Inca..the Monksfield type...tough..never gave in
Hardy Eustace..front runner...hard to pass...the Night Nurse type
Harchibald..Birds Nest of the 3..liked flat tracks and didn't win the big one

not saying the above 3 are as good as the seventies ones..but I can see the similarities in their individual qualities
 
EC1 said:
Istabraq was brilliant but was unfortunate..or fortunate that during his time we never had a wealth of hurdling talent..as that article describes.

See You Then was similar in that respect..Isty was obviously better than SYT but it would have been great to have HE BI & Harchibald with Isty...we would surely have had another golden era

I think we have had a mini golden era with the last 3 named..I can see similariteies there with the seventies horses

Brave Inca..the Monksfield type...tough..never gave in
Hardy Eustace..front runner...hard to pass...the Night Nurse type
Harchibald..Birds Nest of the 3..liked flat tracks and didn't win the big one

not saying the above 3 are as good as the seventies ones..but I can see the similarities in their individual qualities
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I can see the similarities to a degree especially the Harchibald / Birds Nest 1 both very very talented yet total loonies as well, both had the talent to make themselves true legends yet both decided come Cheltenham to throw it away.
 
EC1 yes, Night Nurse came back from a year off with injury to win a handicap at the Doncaster December meeting with a massive weight at something like 14/1 as you say. He then went for the King George about ten days later and had to come from well off the ridiculous pace that was set by Anaglogs Daughter I think. He made the ground up to challenge at three out and uprooted the fence, throwing away his chance before staging a such a rally he was back upsides at the last only to fall/unseat. He would have won I think.
 
Katharine said:
Silver Buck remains rather underrated, I feel.....Sadly, I've never seen a race he had against Night Nurse at Haydock. My dad says it remains one of his favourite races. The Embassy Final, I think it was.
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I was there, Katharine. It was an epic race. From memory, there was only one other runner and it just concerned the big two from a long way out. They went at it hammer and tongs from halfway down the back, both jumping superbly and at high speed. Silver Buck got on top on the run-in and won by (again from memory) two and a half lengths. I was at Liverpool University at the time and saw a lot of racing at Haydock in the late-seventies. In fact, I remember seeing Silver Buck win a handicap hurdle there under top weight and ridden by Michael Dickinson himself. This would probably have been in January 1977 or 1978.

If you've got the Silver Buck book you might be able to check this for me but my recollection is that the Embassy final was run on a Friday, probably in early March, having been cancelled when it was scheduled to be run in January. If my memory isn't playing tricks on me, Decent Fellow beat Sea Pigeon in a handicap hurdle on the same card, receiving lumps of weight, of course.

Finally, I recall seeing Silver Buck beat Night Nurse again at Haydock on a weekday, probably in 1979. I think it was the Edward Hanmer, run in late November.

Silver Buck was a terrific horse, as was Night Nurse.
 
The initial vid of Arkle, great horse an all, but where was the crowd? Atmsphere wise that was like a wet Tuesday at Sedgefield.
 
gus said:
I was there, Katharine. It was an epic race. From memory, there was only one other runner and it just concerned the big two from a long way out. They went at it hammer and tongs from halfway down the back, both jumping superbly and at high speed. Silver Buck got on top on the run-in and won by (again from memory) two and a half lengths. I was at Liverpool University at the time and saw a lot of racing at Haydock in the late-seventies. In fact, I remember seeing Silver Buck win a handicap hurdle there under top weight and ridden by Michael Dickinson himself. This would probably have been in January 1977 or 1978.

If you've got the Silver Buck book you might be able to check this for me but my recollection is that the Embassy final was run on a Friday, probably in early March, having been cancelled when it was scheduled to be run in January. If my memory isn't playing tricks on me, Decent Fellow beat Sea Pigeon in a handicap hurdle on the same card, receiving lumps of weight, of course.

Finally, I recall seeing Silver Buck beat Night Nurse again at Haydock on a weekday, probably in 1979. I think it was the Edward Hanmer, run in late November.

Silver Buck was a terrific horse, as was Night Nurse.
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Hammer and tongs is exactly the phrase used in the book to describe the last mile and a quarter. My dad said it was magnificent. Silver Buck was completely at home at Haydock. The book doesn't seem to say what day of the week the race was, just that it was March 1979.

There is a picture in the book of Silver Buck beating Night Nurse in the Edward Hanmer in 1979. 'Bucket' has his ears pricked as he passes the post.
 
I loved Night Nurse too. Maybe Golden Cygnet was/would have been better over timber, but Night Nurse and Baracouda remain my favourite hurdlers.

Gold Cups that stand out me (of those I attended) were:

Arkle's third Gold Cup (I was too young to go to the other two).

MD's famous five.

Denman

and Jodami beating The Fellow.
 
Desert Orchid's Gold Cup could be the worst one I saw. Struggling to beat a donkey on a course all wrong for him. I suppose you have to give him credit for winning at Cheltenham at all, but he was a different horse in the KG.
 
Monksfield was my favourite. Look at his size and his unorthodox stride, he should never have been anywhere near running in the top races. He was a 5-y-old when beaten by NN in the Champion but he won the following two.

The dead heat in the Templegate Hurdle with NN was very similar to the Haydock race described above. Monksfield and NN both went on going into the far turn and the lead alternated any number of times as they went flat out from there to the line. NN just got back up on the post to avert defeat. Two more genuine horses you will never see.

Red Rum won his third National in the following race. What a day.
 
Grey said:
Monksfield was my favourite. Look at his size and his unorthodox stride, he should never have been anywhere near running in the top races. He was a 5-y-old when beaten by NN in the Champion but he won the following two.

The dead heat in the Templegate Hurdle with NN was very similar to the Haydock race described above. Monksfield and NN both went on going into the far turn and the lead alternated any number of times as they went flat out from there to the line. NN just got back up on the post to avert defeat. Two more genuine horses you will never see.

Red Rum won his third National in the following race. What a day.
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Well said etc etc. No complaints here.
 
Paddy Broderick would have got about six months for his use of the whip in the Templegate now - not pretty
 
Katharine said:
Can anyone tell me what happened to Captain Christy after his King George win in 1975?
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A 30 length thrashing of Bula no less . I think he was injured and although comebacks kept being mooted he was eventually retired . He was one hell of a horse . His thrashing of Bula is one of my earliest racing memories .Here he is winning the 1974 GC as a novice !

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gRFUBTvmu3Y
 
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Thank you, Ardross.

I managed to find out a little more about him. He finished second in the Grand Steeple-Chase De Paris and fourth in a race in the US.

You were right about him being injured. Tendon trouble.
 
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