Davy Nugent was not your average jockey.
He was a hardy corner-back for Ballysaggart’s hurling team with hands like shovels. He was over six foot tall and fond of coleslaw and marmalade sandwiches.
But trainer Jimmy Mangan is sure of his place in racing history.
“Davy Nugent made Monty’s Pass,” says Mangan.
“Monty’s Pass turned out to be the horse he was and he’d never have done it without Davy.”
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It’s 20 years since Monty’s Pass won the Grand National with Barry Geraghty on board for the Conna trainer.
Five years earlier, Nugent steered the horse to its first ever win by 10 lengths in a point-to-point at Tallow.
“I was at a funeral the other day and I met a fella I hadn’t seen for years and I was still referred to as the fella who rode Monty’s Pass…25 years later,” says Nugent.
“He was a horse of a lifetime for the likes of me for the short career that I was at it.”
The story began when a syndicate from Kildorrery purchased a three-year-old called Monty’s Pass at the sales. In the excitement at buying their first horse they never heard the vet’s cert being read out.
“Monty’s Pass had a heart murmur and was listed as unsuitable for racing,” says Mangan.
“They wanted to give him back when they found out, but they couldn’t. Next thing, they sent him to me to be trained and that was it.”
Mangan says the horse was the healthiest in his yard, but it wasn’t until Nugent teamed up with Monty’s Pass that it all began to click.
“He was a kind of lazy horse to begin with. Davy got him working,” says Mangan.
Nugent was riding plenty of winners for Mangan, but was always in a losing battle against the weight.
“I got down to 9stone 13lbs one day to ride Monty’s Pass, sure I nearly had to starve myself,” he says.
“He was the kind of horse that you had to let do his own thing and jumping was his thing.
“If the likes of Monty was in a yard that had a sand gallop and just going around in circles, he could’ve lost his enthusiasm very fast.
“Jimmy was the right man, very patient, horse not doing the same thing every day. He kept him interested.”
Nugent won four times between the flags on Monty’s Pass before landing at hunters’ chase at Cork on April 5, 1999.
April 5 turned out to be a significant date.
Soon afterwards Mangan got a call from Mike Futter, a bingo hall owner based in Donaghadee, County Down.
Futter put together a syndicate with friends Ian Rose, Muir Higginson, Noel Murphy and Adam Armstrong and bought Monty’s Pass from the Kildorrery crew.
To Mangan’s delight, they wanted to keep the horse in his small yard.
Nugent finished up riding not long after that and Geraghty took up where he left off on Monty’s Pass.
A month after riding the horse for the first time, Geraghty had his first ever ride at Aintree in the 2000 Topham for Nicky Henderson on Classy Lad — but not his first trip to Liverpool.
“I had been over the year before,” he says.
“I watched the 1999 Grand National alongside Ruby (Walsh) in the press room in Wexford when Bobbyjo won and I got the first flight to Liverpool that evening for the party.
“I made it to Liverpool, but not to Aintree!”
Monty’s Pass made steady progress over the next two seasons with Geraghty in the saddle.
There were other times when Kieran Kelly and JT McNamara deputised as well — two jockeys who later had their lives cut short from racetrack injuries.
“That’s the other side of it,” says Mangan, quietly.
By the spring of 2002, Mangan felt it was time to see how the horse would take to the Aintree fences. He was entered in the Topham Chase.
The date was April 5, 2002.
“His jumping kept him involved, but he just lacked that bit of extra pace at that trip. Jimmy said afterwards we’d be back for the National the next year,” says Geraghty.
He won the Kerry National at the start of the following season and everything was in place.
With every passing week Futter was putting down more money on the horse and tipping him at bingo halls up and down the country as the price came in from 66-1 to 33-1.
By that stage Geraghty was riding a few nice horses for JP McManus, but in February, 2003, he committed to Monty’s Pass for the National.
A month later he had five winners at Cheltenham and among them was the McManus-owned Youlneverwalkalone, which was now heading for the National…
“It was a difficult position to be in, but they understood,” says Geraghty.
“It probably reflects on how much I fancied Monty’s Pass.”
A few days before Aintree, Mangan was at the funeral of John Crowley, an ex-jockey who had won the Irish National on Herring Gull for Paddy Mullins in 1968.
Outside the church he met Paddy Kiely.
“Paddy had ridden in a lot of Nationals, so I said: ‘Have you any tip for a man with his first runner in a National?’” recalls Mangan.
“And he said: ‘I have, tell your rider the fences are big enough, don’t be asking for big ones. Let the horse alone, he’ll jump them.’
“He’d got that same advice from Pat Taaffe, so I had it from the top men.”
A strong Cork connection with TV3 saw Monty’s Pass get plenty of TV exposure in the build-up to the race and his price began to tumble.
The night before the race former Taoiseach Albert Reynolds was on the Late Late Show and he tipped Monty’s Pass for the National as well.
“Every household in the country backed him on account of Albert Reynolds and TV3,” says Mangan.
Geraghty was unaware of such developments.
“I was in a Chinese in Liverpool on the Friday night. And I was only allowed a starter,” he says, laughing.
Nerves were not something he worried about back then.
“Like in any sport, there’s a level of nervous energy needed for your performances, to focus you, to get the best in yourself,” he says.
“But 20 years ago, the weighroom was a different environment, there was a night out to be had the night before.”
On the afternoon of April 5, 2003 Mangan had only one instruction for Geraghty.
“I met Barry out on the course and I said, ‘I’ve one thing to tell you, don’t be asking Monty’s Pass for big ones’,” says Mangan.
The horse went off at 16/1 and Geraghty had him in a perfect position throughout, but when the chance of a big one came along, the jockey couldn’t help himself.
“I couldn’t,” he says. “I sent him for it. But he stuck in an extra stride.
“Now, he still got up and over the fence without touching a twig.
“But touching down on the far side, Jimmy’s words went through my mind.”
Mangan’s heart was in his mouth for a moment.
“I said to Barry afterwards, ‘Did you suffer from a loss of memory halfway through the race?’” he says, laughing.
But there was no stopping Monty’s Pass and by the time they reached The Elbow he was running away with the race.
“I was going by the water jump saluting the crowd, that’s how easy he won,” says Geraghty.
Mangan was watching in the parade ring in the middle of mad celebrations. Soon afterwards he was in a box in the Queen Mother Stand where his cousin Art Supple, a well-known Cork figure from the showband era, was singing ‘The Banks of My Own Lovely Lee’.
Back in Ballysaggart, Nugent was watching on TV with his late father Padjoe.
“I was roaring like lunatic,” he says.
“I had a right few pound on him too. The way Jimmy was priming him after the Topham, you knew where this fella was going.
“Mike Futter seemingly gave the bookies a great cleaning out.”
Futter took in excess of £800,000 from the bookmakers for Monty’s Pass’ win. It was talked about as the biggest Grand National gamble ever known at the time.
“Liam Cashman was a big bookmaker in Cork,” says Mangan.
“I remember meeting him and he said: ‘I don’t know whether to congratulate you or to hit you, you cost me a bloody fortune.’”
Nugent was back at Mangan’s place for the homecoming.
“Conna was like Cork were after winning the All-Ireland,” he says.
These days he’s working as a supervisor at the Jameson Distillery in Midleton, married to Marie and with two boys, DJ and Rory.
They’re more into GAA than racing, but there’s a reminder of Nugent’s link to sporting history in the house.
“When Monty’s won, Jimmy and Mary gave me a three-way picture of him winning his hunters’ chase and the National. That meant a lot,” says Nugent.
As for the coleslaw and marmalade sambos?
“Ah not too often, but I’d still have the occasional one,” he says, laughing.
Geraghty and his wife Paula took their kids Síofra, Órla and Rían down to see Monty’s Pass a while back and got some photos with the National hero.
“It was great for them to see him, for them to have the connection, the photos, because they weren’t around when it all happened,” he says.
Paula is due child number four in a few weeks, so right now the focus is on the new arrival, not the National. Or nights out beforehand for that matter.
“Síofra is 17 now. So Paula will be doing the night feeds and I’ll be doing the nightclub pick-up runs,” he says. “It’s gone full circle.”
Monty’s Pass died last November, just shy of his 30th birthday and the memories will never fade for Mangan.
“There’s a sign coming into the village, ‘The home of Monty’s Pass’,” he says.
“I’d say he was the most photographed horse in the world. Right up to the day he died there were people coming from England.
“He nearly made it to his 30th birthday, which would be a 100 in human terms. But he’d a great healthy life.
“We’ll never forget him.”
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