Night Nurse lights up the brightest day in hurdling's golden age

There were giants on the earth in those days . . .

Forty years ago the Champion Hurdle was quite a different race from the one contested by the hotch-potch of unlikely lads and lasses arrayed before the public this spring, this scratch XI hastily summoned from the bar after the first-team coach had broken down.

Indeed, it was arguably – and argued ably by greybeards of profound wisdom and perspective – the best Champion Hurdle ever run.