Istabraq

Istabraq I have a real soft spot for being the last horse I backed on British soil before moving to Thailand.

1999 I walked on to a racecourse grabbed the best price available 4/6 watched the race picked up my winnings and left as quickly as I arrived.

Can't say I wasn't a bit worried when French Holly went for home but seldom will you see a a jockey with more confidence in his mount than Charlie Swan showed that day.

I know racing is not all about betting but that day although it may have started out about wining a few bob it didn't end that way

The race was not only an absolute delight to watch but also comical and amusing to watch. Charlie Swan not only cut down a 6 length lead in a matter of seconds he even took a pull after the last and took a long cheeky look over one shoulder then took and even longer look at French Holly flat to the boards on his inside. Cheeky would be an understatement it got me not smiling with glee but laughing at just how Charlie Swan seemed to be taking the p!ss.

As far as Champion Hurdles go I struggle to find a horse that would have beaten him in 1999 when he ran the perfect Champion Hurdle race. IMO

I have always maintained most Champion Hurdles are won between the 3rd last and 2nd last with a kick just before or just after the 2nd last. If you have the horse a quick injection of pace at that point can dangerous opponent into labouring ones in a matter of strides and if you can stay like Istabraq could Pegasus would struggle to catch you

In 1999 he did just that and settled the race with a burst of speed very few hurdlers past and present could have matched.

Maybe Night Nurse could have made it more difficult for him with his relentless gallop but Istabraq stayed every yard of the Champion Hurdle and sprinted all the way to the line.

His ability to quicken on a sixpence then keep going would have made it extremely difficult for even Night Nurse to cope with.

There will always be debates about which horse was the best of all time..Night Nurse? Persian War? Bula? Sea Pigeon? Monksfield? Comedy of Errors? etc but none would be debated without the name of Istabraq being right up there.

Thanks once again DG for a great article
 
As Ted Walsh famously said " when you can get the 3/4 brother to a Derby winner to jump like Istabraq, you can expect him to find more at the back of the last to something bred to stay 3 miles ! "
Had The Fly been bigger I am sure he too would give the big four/five/six plenty to think about but great memories all.
 
How about a Fighting Fifth with Istabraq, Night Nurse, Sea Pigeon, Hurricane Fly, Bula, Comedy of Errors, Persian War and Harchibald to add a bit more spice in the line up.......... and the winner is?
 
Just about Night Nurse for me especially if the race takes place between his hotspot of 1975-1976 when he won ten races on the bounce including the Fighting Fifth.
 
Comedy of Errors was lethal round there and won the race 3 times and old Sea Pigeon took the honours twice.

Gawd only knows which would have come out on top round there as it bears no resemblance to Cheltenham where the majority would have gained their best ratings.

As Thommo would say that's one for the judge......and I would hate to be in his shoes
 
Tanlic said:
How about a Fighting Fifth with Istabraq, Night Nurse, Sea Pigeon, Hurricane Fly, Bula, Comedy of Errors, Persian War and Harchibald to add a bit more spice in the line up.......... and the winner is?
Click to expand...

Hey, you forgot Monksfield, my favourite horse of all time
 
Grey said:
Hey, you forgot Monksfield, my favourite horse of all time
Click to expand...

He was scratched....forgot his passport :lol:

He certainly deserves a place in the line up but I wondered would he have the ability to quicken when it mattered to win at Newcastle...so I replaced him with the Fly to keep edgt happy

tbh I doubt if he would ever have beaten Sea Pigeon on a flat course.

My first 3 at that venue on monday 1. Comedy of Errors. 2. Night Nurse. 3. Sea Pigeon on the Tuesday it would have been 1 Istabraq 2 Pesian War 3. Sea Pigeon and by the Wednesday Bula would have beaten them all.

Chasing is easy Arkle the best 3 miler of all time, Sprinter Sacre the best 2 mile chaser of all time, there is so little between these great hurdlers you could change your mind 7 times in 7 days.
 
Last edited:
This is Monksfield as a 5yo finishing second to Night Nurse in one of the great Champion Hurdles. Look how he clatters the last but still tries to put it up to the winner. The dead heat between them a few weeks later in the Templegate Hurdle at Liverpool is rightly regarded as one of the greatest hurdle races ever seen. They took each other on coming out of the back straight and the lead changed hands several times between there and the finish in the course of a huge struggle. Monksfield received weight from Night Nurse that day but the following year the younger horse had the better of the exchanges.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o7P7ml3e7pc

Monksfield broke all the rules. He was a small scut of a thing (Peter O'Sullevan always referred to him as 'little Monksfield'), cost only 740 Gns and had a dishing, crablike way of running. His trainer Dessie McDonogh was never fashionable and his jockey Tommy Kinane was regarded as a has-been (Dessie Hughes took over when Kinane retired, I think). But the horse had a heart and a will that made him one of the greats. Another rule Monksfield broke was that he raced over hurdles as an entire and went on to have a reasonable stud career.
 
Alas poor Tommy was jocked off after riding to instructions in 1979 Erin Foods hurdle only to win Supreme Novice on Strandfield for Des McDonogh two races before the 79 Champion. The pressure was on Dessie Hughes then to win the Champion Hurdle. Both horses got the kind of forceful rides that would have gotten the jockeys the 3 month holiday Tommy Ryan and Joe Byrne got in 1980.
Tommy did ride Monksfield in his last hurdle , the 1980 Royal Doulton at Haydock.
Young M J Kinane won on Monksfield three years in a row at Naas ( on the flat ) between Cheltenham and Aintree to boot.
He had 73 races, sixteen of those as a 3yo on the flat in 1975 his only placed effort that season was third in Irish cesarewitch before going over hurdles.
Apart from his three year old career he only once won over hurdles before Christmas so the Fighting Fifth would be a non event for him methinks.
As an out and out Night Nurse fan Monkie broke my heart though I never held it against him.
 
I don't go back as far as some of you in fact Istabraqs first Champion Hurdle win was probably my first proper Cheltenham where I realised the difference between races and realised these races were the best horses running. I was just some working class kid who went to fetch a mate out of a bookies one time telling him gambling was a mugs game. From there I slowly got interested horse racing and learned bit by bit.

I have to say reading some of those who've been around longer than me spilling out these memories has been a wonderful read. Just a general thanks all round fellas.

Hopefully I'll still be around in 30-40 years time talking about the likes of Istabraq, Masterminded, Moscow Flyer, Kauto, Denman Big Bucks or Barracuda and many more to those younger than me spilling all the wonderful memories that I've accrued from the Sport of Kings.
 
Last edited:
I remember standing on the rail between the last hurdle and the winning post when Charlie took that long contemptuous look around to see where exactly French Holly was. Reminded me of the rumble in the jungle when Ali mocked Foreman - "Is that all ya got, George? Is that all ya got?" There was an actual sound of belly laughter from the stands when he took that pull.
 
Last edited:
The groan from the crowd followed by a tumultuous round of applause when pulled up just after the winning post when going for this 4th.
 
Name drop smugness alert:

I was guest of the sponsor Smurfit (they didn't care a sh!t about me, but I used to spend a large American budget with them) that year and entertained in that old stand where you could watch the parade ring and the races from front and back balconies. Of 100 people at the lunch/corporate gig, roughly ten of us cared enough to actually watch the race while the rest of the guests could just as easily been at Henley or Cowes and wouldn't have known the difference. Isty is pulled up and the canters back in front of the stands to rapture, Valiramix dies out on the far side, then Hors Le Loi wins improbably. I was a trembling emotional wreck of a man in that moment but when I looked around for succor 90% of the people were sitting at a lunch table, probably discussing the horror of a Labour government and the dangers of mass immigration.

I left the building immediately and never returned.
 
That was the year Gary McGann (self-confessed racing agnostic) took over the reins from Sir Michael.

Wouldn't have thought he was in the 10% somehow!

Long-term sponsorship of the Champion must've been secured before the handover.
 
Back
Top