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How Monksfield conquered Sea Pigeon in an epic - undeterred by the most bizarre pre-race routine imaginable
To whet the appetite for Cheltenham, we're counting down the greatest duels in festival history
Alan SweetmanFeatures writer
Greatest Festival Duels - No. 2
Monksfield v Sea Pigeon, 1979 Champion Hurdle
It was a bizarre prologue to a dramatic day at Cheltenham on March 16, 1979 – Champion Hurdle day.
A small audience looked on disbelievingly as trainer Des McDonogh partnered the reigning champion Monksfield, with his wife Helen aboard the stable's Supreme Novices' Hurdle hopeful Stranfield, in an early-morning workout in driving rain over roughly a mile and six furlongs.
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Copymore inGreatest Festival Duels
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more inGreatest Festival Duels
- Friends, rivals and all-time greats - Denman and Kauto Star give us one of the sport's most iconic moments
- Priests and farmers, lords and layabouts - all came together to herald the greatest there's ever been
- AP McCoy was never one to give up and made the impossible possible - it was a masterpiece
- The sound from the ring may have been the trembling of the layers, whose liabilities on the two Irish 'good things' would have been colossal
- If the half-length verdict sounds conclusive, it didn't seem that way to an enthralled grandstand - this was vintage Cheltenham