Racing Post

They are doing a free first month cancel at any time (?) atm


“There is an abundance of festive racing action headed your way, including over 18 hours of ITV coverage across six days from Monday, December 26.

The Racing Post will be producing unrivalled racing content throughout the entire duration, with the top content reserved exclusively for our subscribers to Members' Club Ultimate.

And we bring you good tidings!

For a limited time, pay nothing for your first month. You'll be covered for the entire festive period, and you can cancel at any time*.

Just use the code FREE at the checkout and join a community of like-minded racing fans enjoying award-winning journalism and renowned form study tools.”
 
Last edited:
Ac,
I agree with the Grasshopper and reet hard if that makes sense.

I subscribe to the essential package which is the ultimate package minus the videos (these are available on rtv and atr free of charge) and find its database far superior to all other alternatives from a form, pedigree and tracking perspective.

However, the standard of journalism and race analysis lacks real substance (most senior writers have long since departed) and the physical paper itself (which for my sins I still buy most days) is no more than a cheerleader sheet for the so called bookmakers.

The one exception to this in my view is the Irish editor Richard Forristal (writes a weekly column). Unafraid of calling out any perceived calamities or injustices on the domestic scene (unlike many of his former colleagues in the weighroom), his command of the written word is impressive, and is in many ways the perfect foil to his woke British counterpart.

I suppose it depends on what you're looking for. As someone who pens for a reputable outlet like The Examiner, the gulf in quality journalism should be readily apparent.
 
Colm, to clarify my earlier comments, the database is very good....but then again, it's not the RP's content.

Otherwise, it's a shi*tbox. You already know much more about racing than their contributors, and their writing is primary-level compared to yours, so very, very hard to see what benefit you'd get from it. I think it would get right on your tits in double-quick time.
 
Last edited:
I do miss the old RaceForm Notebook which analysed the first few home in each race and dropped through your letterbox once a week. RP replicate this with their race analysis nowadays. I did enjoy the Notebook and it was the only thing you’d got unless you had been there and seen the race.
 
barjon said:
I do miss the old RaceForm Notebook which analysed the first few home in each race and dropped through your letterbox once a week. RP replicate this with their race analysis nowadays. I did enjoy the Notebook and it was the only thing you’d got unless you had been there and seen the race.
Click to expand...

Yes, it was originally incorporated into the Form Book maybe 30 years ago and when the RP and the Form Book merged it found its way into the RP results and the Weekender pullouts.

Personally, I found it a big step forward having all the info in one source.
 
barjon said:
I do miss the old RaceForm Notebook which analysed the first few home in each race and dropped through your letterbox once a week. RP replicate this with their race analysis nowadays. I did enjoy the Notebook and it was the only thing you’d got unless you had been there and seen the race.
Click to expand...
Aye, it was a useful tool that pointed to many winners back in the day.
I believe it's all part of the part of the RP setup now, so the database should be identical, if that assumption is correct?
.
 
barjon said:
I do miss the old RaceForm Notebook which analysed the first few home in each race and dropped through your letterbox once a week. RP replicate this with their race analysis nowadays. I did enjoy the Notebook and it was the only thing you’d got unless you had been there and seen the race.
Click to expand...
Aye, it was a useful tool that pointed to many winners back in the day.
I believe it's all part of the RP setup now, so the database should be identical, if that assumption is correct?
.
 
€5.20for todays RP-seriously overpriced.
I subscribed to the online version for 14 months -the rate was acceptable but it didn't deliver what it promised and in fairness to them they refunded my last months subscription.
 
I never use the RP at all, haven't used it for ages. I use Horseracebase for a database and daily form, and ATR now, have done for a long time. I used to think I couldn't manage without RP, but you can soon get used to not doing so. Horseracebase costs a tenner a month and ATR zero.
 
It looks like the Racing Post have now moved every News item behind a pay-wall; with even the most rudimentary stories being given only a small tempter, before the reader is asked to subscribe to unlock the rest of the details.

I'm surprised it's taken them this long, tbh.
 
Grasshopper said:
It looks like the Racing Post have now moved every News item behind a pay-wall; with even the most rudimentary stories being given only a small tempter, before the reader is asked to subscribe to unlock the rest of the details.

I'm surprised it's taken them this long, tbh.
Click to expand...

Tbh I thought they already had. Fair enough I suppose if they can't make it pay through advertising. I use their site less and less these days.
 
simmo said:
Tbh I thought they already had. Fair enough I suppose if they can't make it pay through advertising. I use their site less and less these days.
Click to expand...

There would be about a half-dozen stories a day that weren't behind the paywall, simmo - and most of them fairly uninteresting at that.

It's no great loss to me. Sporting Life, Irishracing, ATR etc all perfectly adequate.......and most real stories break all over Twitter long before the RP has anything on them anyway.
 
Grasshopper said:
There would be about a half-dozen stories a day that weren't behind the paywall, simmo - and most of them fairly uninteresting at that.

It's no great loss to me. Sporting Life, Irishracing, ATR etc all perfectly adequate.......and most real stories break all over Twitter long before the RP has anything on them anyway.
Click to expand...

The best source of news is the Press Association’s https://nagme.com/news. They’ve got an excellent free tracker, too.
 
Starting with the best…

At the time of his retirement in 1991, Desert Orchid was a horse everyone could relate to. He had never been wrapped in cotton wool, with his connections always looking for a reason to run him rather than waiting for another day.
Between the ages of four and 12 he ran on 70 occasions over jumps, winning 34 times over trips ranging from two miles to three miles five furlongs. The ground was never a factor, evidenced by 13 runs on going with the word firm in the description and six more on heavy, and it was not all about Graded races either.
Desert Orchid was just as likely to be seen lumping top weight in races like the Tingle Creek or Victor Chandler Chase – both handicaps in his day – while he conceded 2st to 12 of his 13 rivals when winning the 1990 Irish Grand National by 12 lengths.
There are so many gems on his crowded CV but, more than 30 years since his final race, it is easy to pinpoint the season Desert Orchid cemented his legacy as a national treasure.
It is true he had already won a King George by the start of the 1988-89 season, having triumphed in the race for the first time in 1986, but he had gone down by 15 lengths to French raider Nupsala the following year, finishing second only after Forgive 'n Forget tipped up at the last.
He was already a household name due to the frequency with which he ran and his swashbuckling running style from the front, but he was winless from five runs at the Cheltenham Festival, having never truly looked like he was going to collect at the biggest meeting of all.

Unplaced in the 1984 Champion Hurdle and pulled up in the same race 12 months later, Desert Orchid reached new heights over fences but he was always at more of a disadvantage when going left-handed and was beaten almost nine lengths when third in the 1986 Arkle.
He filled the same position behind Pearlyman on his first attempt in the Champion Chase in 1987 and although he finished second in the same race behind the same rival 12 months later, he was actually beaten further by the winner in 1988.
However, his final two starts of the 1987-88 season saw Desert Orchid winning over three miles one furlong at Aintree in April and then over three miles five furlongs in the Whitbread at Sandown, beating the talented Kildimo on both occasions. Then came his annus mirabilis.
He outclassed four inferior rivals on his reappearance off level weights at Wincanton, strolling to a 15-length success as the 2-7 favourite. Then things became interesting.
He was again the class act in the Tingle Creek, which was a limited handicap in 1988, meaning Desert Orchid was giving between 17lb and 28lb to his four rivals.
"With Desert Orchid we'd chuck our hat in the ring in handicaps," says David Elsworth, the man who masterminded the grey's unrivalled career. "He'd win them with top weight and he'd get beaten.
"Handicaps were there and they were valuable, and they were always competitive because Desert Orchid may have been the best chaser in the country but people would say, 'But is he a stone and a half better than my horse?' and they'd run against him. That's the fascination of racing. We didn't try to keep him unbeaten."

Defeat never looked likely at Sandown from the moment the tape went up, which was helped by the fact mercurial chaser Vodkatini, sent off the 2-1 favourite, refused to race.
Desert Orchid set off in the lead and stayed there, sailing over Sandown's Railway fences on his way to a 12-length defeat of Jim Thorpe.
From two miles at Sandown, Elsworth pointed Dessie to Kempton on Boxing Day and the King George over three miles. Off level weights, he was sent off the 1-2 favourite but faced four quality rivals in Cavvies Clown, Charter Party, Kildimo and Vodkatini.
"I think you ran out of ideas on how to beat him because he was so versatile," says Peter Hobbs, the man tasked with getting Vodkatini to jump off with his rivals and a regular riding against Desert Orchid.
"If you went slow he'd quicken and if you went fast he'd outstay you. And Desert Orchid's jumping was impeccable."
Both Kildimo, ridden by Jimmy Frost, and Vodkatini travelled in Dessie's slipstream and turning in for the final time looked poised to strike.
"Kildimo was always there underneath me, always going forward and it was pretty exciting," remembers Frost. "At the second-last we were going as well as anybody but Desert Orchid was tough and just kept finding a bit."
Hobbs too thought it might be his day turning for home, but ultimately neither Vodkatini or Kildimo could master the fans' favourite.
"Vodkatini looked all over the winner at the second-last but he just didn't get the trip," he says. "Because Vodkatini was a bit suspect at starting, I had to gee him up at the start to make sure he jumped off and then he was always running a bit keen.
"If he'd been normal at the start and I could have dropped in last, he'd have had more of a chance of getting the trip. I was getting excited for ten strides going to the second-last but who's to say if Vodkatini had got the trip that Desert Orchid wouldn't have outbattled him anyway? Often Dessie looked beat but still dug deep and won."
Dessie had a comfortable four lengths to spare at the line, with Kildimo winning the battle for second in front of non-stayer Vodkatini.

From Grade 1 success over three miles, Elsworth decided to switch back to two miles and handicap company for the Victor Chandler Chase next, where Dessie put up arguably his most famous weight-carrying performance.
He was tasked with giving 22lb to Panto Prince and 23lb to Vodkatini, and his rivals fancied their chances.
"The only time we were ever going to beat Dessie was that day at Ascot," says Panto Prince's rider Brendan Powell, who at the time was effectively Elsworth's stable jockey but was a regular on Panto Prince's back.
Elsworth had wanted to send Powell to ride in Ireland that day but the jockey knew he would never get a better chance of beating Dessie and, although it did not go down too well with his boss, he headed to Ascot.
"Elsie told me, 'You won't get near the grey horse, you know that' and he wasn't very happy that I didn't go to Ireland," says Powell.
"It was decent ground that day and I rode Panto Prince very aggressively. We had Panto in great form and receiving 22lb we decided to take him on at his own game. At one or two down the hill we even made lengths from Dessie.
"From Swinley Bottom I started to stretch him and Panto was brilliant over his fences. What he lacked in class he made up over his fences. That's what kept him in his races.
"Going to the second-last I thought we were beat, but again at the last I got a really good jump and 99 out of 100 horses we'd have beaten them. Yet as soon as Simon Sherwood pulled Dessie into another horse, he'd always find that little bit extra. That's what he did halfway up the run-in and he just caught us on the flat."
Having looked beaten at the back of the last, Desert Orchid – sent off the 6-4 favourite – clawed back Panto Prince's advantage to prevail by a head in an epic.
"In those days, when they got beat, you'd accept it and try again the next time," says Powell. "Everything is scrutinised now and I think a lot of people seem to be afraid of that. They weren't in those days and if they were fit, sound and well, you'd run them."
As a case in point, Panto Prince ran ten times between October 1988 and May 1989, winning three and finishing outside the first three on only three occasions.

After such a gruelling contest at Ascot, it would not have been unreasonable had Elsworth taken his foot off the gas with his star chaser, but that was not the attitude and three weeks later Dessie was back up to three miles for the Gainsborough Chase at Sandown.
"I think generally we did run them more [than today]," says Elsworth. "I always reckoned if a horse was fit and well, to expect him to run once a month wasn't unreasonable.
"It wasn't just Desert Orchid I ran that amount of times. We didn't wrap them in cotton wool, that's for sure. We got on and ran them."
As well as familiar foes Kildimo and Charter Party, Dessie faced a new challenger in the Gainsborough, with Pegwell Bay, off the back of winning the Mackeson and December Gold Cups at Cheltenham, taking on the sport's poster boy and in receipt of 18lb.
"Pegwell Bay was 7lb below the top ones but he was a hell of a horse – he was hard, tough and a fantastic jumper," says his rider Carl Llewellyn.
"We thought Dessie would have to have an off day for us to beat him, but Pegwell was a tough front-runner himself so you let him bowl along.
"There were a few times when I thought I might have him here, and it was a hell of a race. Pegwell was so honest and willing. He wanted to be brave and have a battle. It was an enjoyable ride."
Pegwell Bay led from the 12th, stretched his rivals throughout the last circuit and came away from the last with a clear lead, but Sherwood galvanised Dessie on the flat and as soon as his partner got a whiff of victory he surged to the front in the nick of time.
Llewellyn says: "Dessie had loads of speed to win around Kempton but plenty of stamina, as he showed lots of times as well. It's hard to beat a horse like that.
"Dessie was at the top for so many years, he had a hell of a following. Forget about betting, they just loved to watch him and it was a hell of an atmosphere before and after the race.
"Everyone has got more particular about having the perfect conditions to run in now. People are more afraid of getting beat, whereas in those days you accepted it and tried to win the next one."
Victory at Sandown extended Desert Orchid's winning run to seven, including five for the season, and set him up perfectly for the Cheltenham Gold Cup and a chance to secure his status as an all-time great, although late drama put his bid in doubt.
A mixture of sleet, snow and rain overnight left pools of water on the track and officials pondering the viability of running the 1989 Gold Cup.
Fire engines were called in to help pump water off the sodden track but, while the fixture hung in the balance, the thought of not running on desperately heavy ground never crossed Elsworth's mind.
"One day at Kempton I pulled him out on firm ground but that was the only time I can remember pulling him out," he says. "On Gold Cup day I was concerned if racing was going to take place, but if it was going ahead he was going to run.
"He was literally the best jumper in training and he didn't mind soft ground. There was no-one better equipped to deal with the ground conditions than him."

Rumours that owner Richard Burridge wanted to withdraw the horse proved unfounded and, with the track deemed raceable, Desert Orchid lined up against 13 rivals. Only five would finish.
"It was a tough race and they took us on going around the bottom bend for the second time," remembers Elsworth. "We were flat out and Ten Plus had gone on and was making his way home.
"We were actually in the air together when Ten Plus, who was a good horse, fell three out. That left Yahoo in front along the rail and we looked beat, but when they straightened up and push came to shove the old boy went by him.
"Desert Orchid wasn't the same horse around Cheltenham. I don't know why as he was a well-balanced horse and jumped like a stag, but he just didn't seem to get the wind in his sails. Once they straightened though, he'd always stay on. If you'd run the Gold Cup at Sandown or Kempton, he'd have won two or three Gold Cups."
In what has become one of the most-watched finishes of all time, Desert Orchid starts to peg back mud-lover Yahoo from the last, halfway up the run-in he draws alongside and in the final strides the nation's hero edges ahead to claim the biggest prize in jump racing, in the process sending the crowd into delirium.
"About 15 strides before the last he changed his legs and, when he pricked his ears going into the last, that's when I knew we had the petrol if I could keep the engine running," says Sherwood, who was unbeaten on Desert Orchid at that stage.
"As he landed over the last I remember hearing an almighty roar. I thought, 'Right, get your head down because you've got only one chance of doing this in your life.'
"You're immersed in the bubble at the time and it's only a few days later that you realise the magnitude of it. It comes up in conversation on a regular basis and I appreciate how much I owe that horse. He enabled me to achieve more than I ever anticipated achieving.
"He was charismatic and so honest. You got out on that racecourse and he'd give you everything, every time. I'm lucky to have been associated with such an iconic animal."
After his victory at Cheltenham, Dessie was as popular as any sportsman or woman of that era. He was the people's champion, one in a million.
"It was a culmination of things," says Elsworth of the horse's popularity. "He was grey, flamboyant and would usually go off in front. He'd run most Saturdays and often win, so I suppose he captured the public's imagination. He probably recruited more fans than Frankie Dettori!"
His winning run came to an end at Aintree the following month, although he was going ominously well in the lead when falling at the 12th fence in the Martell Cup. Incidentally, Yahoo, the horse who had pushed Desert Orchid to his limit in the Gold Cup, took the race by a wide margin.
Just three weeks after that stamina-sapping Gold Cup, both horses were back on course. This really was an era when horses raced.
 
Once upon a time, there were two special horses who symbolised the way things used to be.
They raced year after year, through spring, summer, autumn and winter, over hurdles and on the Flat, always busy, never boring. They were old horses who to jumps fans became old friends. Now some of the folk they left behind are of a certain age, pleased and proud to tell the stories of those remarkable, durable and utterly wonderful animals.
From 1978 to 1981, the Champion Hurdle was won by either Monksfield or Sea Pigeon. For the first three of those years, the two fierce rivals, one Irish, the other British, jumped Cheltenham's final flight ahead of their opponents, almost inseparable. They were a double act whose fame and popularity were built not simply on iconic festival clashes but more widely because of everything else they did over such a long time.
Back then the sport's top jumpers invariably competed more regularly than they do now, creating a familiarity that bred love and devotion among the sport's followers.
There were, of course, exceptions to the rule – See You Then, the winner of three Champion Hurdles from 1985 to 1987, was nicknamed 'See You When?' because he was sighted so infrequently – just as there are exceptions to the current trend. But what was generally normal then is abnormal now, and nowhere is that more apparent than in the Champion Hurdle division. Constitution Hill and Honeysuckle are set to clash in this year's race on the back of just two runs each this season; Monksfield ran 13 times in the calendar year of 1978, trumped two years later when Sea Pigeon ran 15 times.
Both horses also earned a living on the Flat, with Sea Pigeon arguably the finest dual-purpose performer of all time, finishing seventh in the 1973 Derby for Jeremy Tree before establishing himself as a stalwart of the best Flat handicaps for Peter Easterby and owner Pat Muldoon. He won the Ebor, two Chester Cups, three Vaux Gold Tankards, a Doonside Cup and much more besides. During that stellar 1980, the definitive hold-up horse utilised his famous late swoop to win seven of the 15 races he tackled.

Monksfield may have been less celebrated on the Flat – albeit he was good enough to win on debut as a juvenile and then land the Saval Beg Stakes – but the never-say-die scrapper was equally accustomed to working overtime, his four Flat missions in 1978 being sandwiched by nine hurdling efforts.
The pair's enthralling, uplifting qualities were never more joyously appreciated than at Cheltenham, where they brought to an end what is often described as the golden age of hurdling. Across six years of sustained excellence, Night Nurse, Monksfield and Sea Pigeon each won two Champion Hurdles, with Ireland's hero preventing Easterby spanning the era unbeaten.
"He was the total horse of a lifetime," says Des McDonogh, who was just 27 years old when preparing Monksfield to finish second in the 1976 Triumph Hurdle for owner Michael Mangan. The following season he gave the horse he bought as a two-year-old – and one who was never gelded – no fewer than nine hurdle runs before the festival, including one on a Saturday and the next two days later at Navan, where he captured a handicap under 12st. He went on to chase home Night Nurse at Cheltenham before dead-heating with his Champion Hurdle conqueror at the end of a momentous Aintree tussle.
"If you now suggested running a Champion Hurdle horse twice in three days, they would either laugh or tell you it's not possible," says McDonogh. "They would say the man was mad, but that's the way it was then. On one of the days he carried over 12st, the late Peter McCreery came in and said to me he had been down at the last hurdle and reckoned Monksfield would have carried another stone and still won. That's the sort of horse he was.
"If I hadn't run him as often as I did he would have broken the door down. He absolutely loved going racing. For the five years we flew him to Cheltenham, you had to run like hell ahead of him up the ramp, otherwise he would mow you down. It was extraordinary to see. He was also a hard horse to get fit because he took a lot of work. He ate for Ireland – and when he wasn't eating he was sleeping."
All that food helped to make Monksfield a bigger boy than most people realised.

"He was a strong 16 hands but didn't look it compared to Night Nurse and Sea Pigeon, plus he galloped low to the ground," says McDonogh, now 76, referencing the long neck and dipped head that left nobody in any doubt how hard Monksfield tried.
"His will to win was obvious from when he was young," adds McDonogh. "Even in his work, no matter who he was galloping with at the time, he always had to finish first."
Sea Pigeon had passed the post fourth in that 1977 Champion Hurdle just a few months after transferring to Easterby from Gordon Richards. He built on that to claim the Scottish Champion Hurdle, although arguably even more meritorious that season were handicap wins at Ayr, Haydock and Aintree achieved under the burdens of 12st 7lb, 12st 2lb and 12st 6lb.
"You can duck and dive now," says Sea Pigeon's regular rider Jonjo O'Neill. "There are too many races to choose from. In those days you had to run in handicaps."
Fortunately, Sea Pigeon was well equipped for them.
"He was a tough, grand horse," recalls O'Neill. "He had a lot of pace and class, but you never wanted to get there too quick because he would idle in front and pull himself up.
"He was a real character. The key to him was getting him switched off. To do that you had to drop your hands on him and also talk to him. That was so important. I would talk to him down at the start and then all through the race, saying things like 'whoa boy' or 'settle down'.
"Good horses have little kinks in them – and he definitely had little kinks – but the great thing was he was intelligent. He would actually listen to you."
It had been listening to his Chester Cup-winning rider Mark Birch on Easterby's gallops that made all the difference.
"The biggest trouble with Sea Pigeon was he didn't have any brakes," says Easterby. "All he wanted was to go like hell. It took a fair time to get that out of his head, but once Mark got him settled he was a different horse."
He was also a horse people took to their hearts, among them former William Hill UK operations director Steven White, who has spent almost £10,000 on Sea Pigeon memorabilia that includes 75 racecards, the 1980 Champion Hurdle trophy and the whip carried by John Francome in the same race 12 months later. As a public display of his affection, White chose @seapigeon for his Twitter handle.
"As a schoolboy, racing was always on television and I used to watch as much as I could," he explains. "I loved Sea Pigeon because he raced so often and you got to see him regularly on TV, which was tremendous. I was also so excited by the way he travelled so easily and then arrived late on the scene.
"You don't see the top horses running against each other as often as they used to in the '70s and '80s. They weren't afraid of it in those days, which was marvellous for racing fans. They were good times."

They were great Champion Hurdles. In 1978, Monksfield galloped past Night Nurse on the downhill run for home and then powered clear from Sea Pigeon up the final climb. The 1977 second was the 1978 winner.
"Now it's old hat to the Irish, but when we won for the first time it was Ireland's first Champion Hurdle in 15 years," remembers McDonogh, whose then 44-year-old jockey Tommy Kinane savoured every second.
"Those Champion Hurdles were amazing races and I used to love riding him," says Kinane.
"He was a brilliant jumper and you could put him anywhere in a race. He was a hardy little devil, too, as tough as nails. There was always something under the bonnet."
For Easterby, there remains a regret. With O'Neill injured, Frank Berry deputised aboard Sea Pigeon, who, unusually, was already under pressure on the run to the final flight.
"I forgot to tell him not to ask any questions too soon," says Easterby. "When he gave him a smack to wake him up down the far side, the horse was set alight. That was the end of that."
The frustration for Easterby – and not only for him – would be much more pronounced in 1979. Monksfield led almost from start to finish, albeit this time under Dessie Hughes after Mangan chose to replace Kinane. He was headed only after Sea Pigeon cruised into the lead coming off the final bend. That advantage was lost halfway up the run-in, as the packed Cheltenham grandstands witnessed a duel of epic proportions. It was a showdown Easterby and O'Neill believe Sea Pigeon lost in the paddock when Muldoon revealed to O'Neill he had placed a meaty bet on his horse.

"I made a complete bollocks of it," admits O'Neill. "I didn't want to be caught napping and arrived there too soon. Sea Pigeon came to Monksfield pulling a train, but when he got to the front he pricked his ears and pulled himself up. Mr Muldoon was fairly white when I came in.
"The problem was you couldn't allow yourself to get into a battle with Monksfield. He was like a little Jack Russell. You knew he was going to keep fighting all the way up the hill, so you had to see him off quickly. Unless you could finish him off in an instant, you were never going to beat him."
Not surprisingly, McDonogh remembers the occasion more fondly.
"Jonjo will tell you he was smiling jumping the last because he thought he had us," says McDonogh. "I thought Monksfield was magnificent that day – but then everything he did was magnificent.
"Peter Easterby is a wonderful man and I remember meeting him after that Champion Hurdle. He said to me: 'When are you going to retire that little 'oss and give our fella a chance?'"
Perceived wisdom was that Sea Pigeon's opportunity had passed.
"Well, bad luck for Sea Pigeon," said Julian Wilson during the BBC coverage. "He's nine years old now. That must be his last chance. It's just the ground and this old hill that seems to find him out year after year."
Fortuitously, both factors were made more favourable to Sea Pigeon the following year. Crucially, the Champion Hurdle course was changed. Until then, runners galloped past the winning post after jumping the second flight and then raced around what is now the Best Mate enclosure. From 1980, the field took an immediate left-hand turn after that second flight, meaning the hill had to be tackled only once and the big-race distance was reduced by roughly a furlong. In a further boost, the Tuesday and Wednesday cards were flipped, allowing the Champion Hurdle field the luxury of racing on a surface that had not been churned up.
It made all the difference, as did the more exaggerated tactics deployed by O'Neill, who ignited Sea Pigeon only once all the jumping was done. At the age of ten, and at the fourth attempt, the old boy had finally scaled the most coveted of mountains.

"He's won it at last!" declared BBC commentator Peter O'Sullevan. His voice was filled with a joy shared by so many at Cheltenham, yet, entirely fittingly, both horses were roared back into the winner's enclosure. They had fought out the finish for the third consecutive year. Here were two true champions.
"It was mostly a relief because I knew I should have won on him the year before," says O'Neill. "It was just nice to do it right. The following year I was injured and John Francome was brilliant on him. The horse didn't even have a race that day."
Francome's artful mastery aboard the then 11-year-old Sea Pigeon will be forever remembered as one of the most sublime pieces of horsemanship in Cheltenham history. He waited even longer than O'Neill had dared, testing the nerves of his mount's connections and fans to the limit. When he allowed the cherished veteran beneath him to race, he sprinted with glee up the hill that for so long had been his nemesis. Like Monksfield, who was by now retired, he was a dual Champion Hurdle hero.
Now, of course, they are both long since gone. The bare facts show Sea Pigeon won 37 of his 85 races. Monksfield was successful in 19 of his 76 runs and subsequently added to his haul at stud. More than four decades have elapsed since they last graced the turf, but the mere mention of their names brings a smile to the face.
"I would still love another like him," says the 93-year-old Easterby, selecting Sea Pigeon's record-breaking 1979 Ebor triumph under 10st as a personal highlight.
"The most amazing day was at York when Jonjo dropped his hands just before the line," remembers Easterby. "Hell fire! My heart stopped, I'll tell you that. I was lucky it came back to life. We won the Gimcrack the following day as well. That was some double, wasn't it?"

Nobody would disagree about that, nor the assessment of Kinane, whose legendary son Mick won the same Naas apprentice race on Monksfield three years in a row from 1976 to 1978.
"I'm almost 90 years of age now and my memory is going, but I know Monksfield was a special horse, a great horse, actually – and so was Sea Pigeon," says Kinane snr, whose home features a picture of Monksfield and Sea Pigeon jumping Cheltenham's final flight as one. Perhaps more than anything that is how they should be remembered.
"Once you got on his back, he had only one thing on his mind, which was to run as fast as you would let him," says McDonogh of Monksfield, a horse the still licensed trainer has never been able to replace. Like Sea Pigeon, he was irreplaceable.
"He had the most gorgeous head," says McDonogh wistfully. "It was like he was looking at you and trying to tell you how great he was.
"I used to have so many callers asking about him, but you're only the second person to ring me about him in the last five or six years. Unfortunately, I don't meet that many people now I can talk to about him. We're running out of people."
But not memories. Across all those years and all those races, Monksfield and Sea Pigeon galloped, jumped and battled into immortality. It was well earned.
 
Really appreciate you posting those, Lee - great stuff.

Who authored these pieces, because it's the best writing I've 'seen' in the Post for many a year.
 
What lovely blasts from the past. Still nestling happil in my memory, but brought vividly to life again.
 
Back
Top