Happy retirement to Not So Sleepy.
The 12-year-old stormed off the stage in the finest fashion, winning his 69th and final start over the weekend for trainer Hughie Morrison and owner/breeder Lady Blythe.
A six-time winner on the flat and a six-time winner over hurdles, the chestnut gelding defended his title in the Dubai Duty Free Autumn Cup Handicap at Newbury Saturday. The son of Beat Hollow took the lead early and lost his lead late in the 1 5/8-mile contest. Ears pinned as Our Golden One, nine years his junior, sauntered past, Not So Sleepy slid back to second, third, fourth. And then he turned back the clock one final time, regaining his lead and regaining his crown. “A dream retirement,” the announcer said.
Yeah, a dream retirement.
The Racing Post summed it up in the analysis.
They headed centre-field in the straight, with the veteran winner registering a second straight win in the race.
NOT SO SLEEPY, just 1lb higher than when winning 12 months earlier, had ground conditions to suit and the veteran showed a fine attitude to wrestle back the advantage and sign off a fine career with a fairy tale ending. As tough as he was versatile, the 12-time winner’s most significant wins came when dead-heating with Epatante in the 2021 Fighting Fifth and when landing last year’s rearranged edition of that race at Sandown.
Trainer Hughie Morrison has described Not So Sleepy as “unmanageable” at home. Some days he plants his hooves and doesn’t go. When he does go, he blazes up the gallops solo, always too fast. A winner of his career debut as a 2-year-old in 2014, he won the Grade 1 Fighting Fifth Hurdle twice and won the Group 3 Betfair Exchange Trophy at Ascot on the flat twice and earned over £600,000.
He did it his way. All the way.
