Grade 1 winner Not So Sleepy set for final race of remarkable ten-year career at Newbury on Saturday

Hughie Morrison believes Grade 1 winner Not So Sleepy deserves to go out on a high in Saturday’s Dubai Duty Free Autumn Cup Handicap (2.05) at Newbury, a race which the trainer has confirmed will be the last appearance of a wonderful ten-year career.

Connections had discussed last month’s Ebor Handicap being the 12-year-old’s final start, but due to quick ground he was unable to participate for the 69th time.

His Newbury run had also been under threat due to unsuitable conditions, but the track received 15mm of rain on Saturday morning which turned the ground heavy, and the son of Beat Hollow will now have his ideal conditions in a race he landed 12 months ago on the same going description.

Not So Sleepy, who won on debut at Nottingham in October 2014, has chalked up quite the CV under the guidance of Morrison. His most recent success came in last year’s rearranged Grade 1 Fighting Fifth Hurdle, in which he beat Love Envoi by eight lengths. He also dead-heated with Epatante in the 2021 edition.

Owned by Lady Blyth, he has 11 victories and has earned prize-money of more than £570,000, and it is his sheer desire to continue performing each year that pleases the East Ilsley-based trainer most.

Morrison said: "He’s one of these horses who appears very rarely, but it’s extraordinary he’s been able to remain racing with such enthusiasm. We all become less consistent as we get older, but he hasn’t been that inconsistent in the last three years.

"He’s proved his class and that he deserved to compete at Grade 1 level. I suppose the sad thing is that he’s never carried his form on to the Cheltenham Festival. He’s never seemed to perform there in the spring, but I think it’s a time thing rather than a racecourse thing.

"He’s won at every sort of course and run well over distances beyond him, including in the Cesarewitch, while he’s had two good wins in the Betfair Exchange Trophy at Ascot.

"He gave us a few grey hairs earlier in his career as he’s always had a mind of his own, whether that’s on the gallops or on the racecourse, but every race he’s won has been as strong a memory as the day he won as a two-year-old and watching him at Tattersalls."

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