The 1977 Templegate Hurdle at Aintree produced one of the most memorable finishes ever seen over timber when Monksfield and Night Nurse couldn’t be separated in a dramatic dead heat. Both were already established as elite two-mile hurdlers, and the longer distance of the Templegate – often a championship-quality contest in its own right – became the perfect stage for their rivalry.
Run at a fierce gallop, the race developed into a duel long before the last. Night Nurse, all power and relentless pace, kept finding when challenged, while Monksfield travelled with that trademark smoothness, closing with purpose as the leaders swung for home. Over the final hurdle they rose together, and up the run-in neither would yield an inch.
Stride for stride, they fought out a finish of extraordinary intensity,where it looked as if the Irish challenger had the upper hand – and at the line the judge could not split them. The photograph confirmed what many people sensed: a dead heat, a rare outcome in a major Aintree feature and a fitting reflection of two champions operating at the very peak of their powers.
Rather than settle an argument, the Templegate Hurdle immortalised it – a shared triumph that only deepened the legend of both horses. Nobody though, could have imagined the drama that was to come on that April afternoon…
