Hughie Morrison has expressed his disappointment after Constitution Hill was ruled out of the Unibet Champion Hurdle, despite his absence elevating Not So Sleepy to become the leading British contender for the Cheltenham Festival’s opening day feature.
Hopes of National Hunt’s flagship horse making the start line were dashed on Monday when Nicky Henderson announced blood test results showed the defending champion had not recovered sufficiently enough from a respiratory infection to line up in the Cotswolds.
That leaves the 12-year-old Not So Sleepy to fly the flag for the home team as he makes his fifth appearance in the Champion Hurdle – having previously finished no better than fifth.
He heads to Prestbury Park in rude health, having claimed the rearranged Fighting Fifth when last sighted.
But far from seeing Constitution Hill’s absence as a positive in Not So Sleepy’s claims for big-race glory, Morrison is regretful that the Seven Barrows superstar will be sitting on the sidelines during the biggest week of the season.
“I’m actually quite disappointed Constitution Hill is not turning up,” said Morrison.
“I don’t think I should be excited really and I’m quite disappointed. At the end of the day, we want the best to be there and the best probably isn’t going to be there. We would have liked to have taken him on – you always want to take on the best.
“Let’s hope we now get there in one piece.”
With Constitution Hill out of the picture and State Man now the heavy odds-on favourite with the layers, it is Not So Sleepy who is the shortest-priced British-trained Champion Hurdle contender, with the veteran a 14-1 chance with Paddy Power.
However, Morrison is still processing his charge’s position in the reformed market and is more worried about seeing some rain appear in the weather forecasts ahead of his big date on Tuesday week.
“I hadn’t really thought of it that way, but I’m just delighted to have something with good reason to be going there really,” said Morrison, when asked about the responsibility of being Britain’s number one hope.
“On his day, he’s a really good horse and he deserves to be there – on a good day, he should be in the money. Over the years, he has run four times in the Champion Hurdle and has run reasonably well, but I’ve always thought I could have had him better.
“We are there to do our best and we’re slightly concerned about the weather forecast looking dry all week, but hopefully the rain will reappear at the weekend for us.
“Racehorses always give you sleepless nights, especially when they are 12 and they have got a few miles on the clock. There is always something creeping round the corner, as Nicky Henderson knows.
“Hopefully we can get him there in good nick but I would like a bit of rain to give us a chance.”
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Hughie Morrison is eyeing a first tilt at Ascot’s Gold Cup this summer for his star stayer Quickthorn.
The seven-year-old won the Group Three Henry II Stakes at Sandown and a Group Two in France a couple of seasons ago, before registering a stunning 14-length victory in the Lonsdale Cup at York.
He produced a similarly dominant front-running display to lift the Goodwood Cup last term – and while Morrison has doubts about his stamina, he is happy to give him his chance in the Royal meeting’s two-and-a-half-mile showpiece in mid-June.
“Quickthorn is back in and has done well over the winter. He came in earlier actually because he was a bit naughty at home, possibly because it’s been so wet,” said the trainer.
“He’s started cantering and although I’m not convinced he’ll stay the Gold Cup trip, I think we’ll have a go at it this year. He’s another year older and the older they are, the further they’ll stay.
“That will be our main target this year and I might be tempted to wait and give him his first run at Sandown (Henry II Stakes).
“We seem to get three or four months out of him and that’s it really, so we possibly don’t want to start too early, but we’ll play it by ear.”
Another horse for whom Morrison holds top-level aspirations is Stay Alert, who ran in Group One company on four occasions last season, with her best effort being a runner-up finish behind Via Sistina in the Pretty Polly Stakes at the Curragh in July.
Morrison added: “The owner has decided to have another go with Stay Alert, which is exciting. She’ll be campaigned in those mile-and-a-quarter fillies’ races on genuine good ground.
“We’ve also got Mistral Star, who was second in a Listed race last season, and I’ll be disappointed if she doesn’t win a Group race this year.”
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Hughie Morrison reports Not So Sleepy to be firmly on course for next month’s Unibet Champion Hurdle after going up the Lambourn gallops “like a rocket” on Wednesday morning.
The mud-loving veteran has won 11 times over jumps and on the Flat combined, most recently proving the fire still burns bright despite his advancing years when claiming Grade One honours in a rescheduled Fighting Fifth Hurdle at Sandown in December.
Morrison has since given his 12-year-old a winter break and is now beginning to turn the screw ahead of what will be his fifth tilt at Champion Hurdle glory in just under three weeks’ time.
“I went away last week and I came back and thought he was looking rather fat, which is a good sign because you want them to be doing well,” said the trainer.
“Over the last year or 18 months we’ve taken him to Lambourn the odd time, because we’ve been snowed in or something like that, and he actually had a nice gallop in Lambourn this morning.
“Thanks to the people in Lambourn who accommodated us, he had a spin up The Long gallop and he went up there like a rocket.”
Not So Sleepy was pulled up in his first Champion Hurdle four years ago and has finished fifth in the last three renewals, twice behind Honeysuckle and once behind Constitution Hill.
With Constitution Hill and last year’s runner-up State Man again set to be in opposition, Morrison is under no illusions about the task facing his charge on March 12, but he is happy to roll the dice and will be praying for testing conditions on the opening day of the Cheltenham Festival.
“I’m sure they will start quivering in their boots when they hear Sleepy is running,” he joked.
“We’d like a day like today on Tuesday March 12! Hopefully we get wet ground to make it hard work so the speed horses can’t quicken away from him. We also need Constitution Hill and State Man probably to have a day off.
“We are realistic, but at this moment in time I’m very happy with him.”
He added: “He’s lucky he’s not in a Willie Mullins or Gordon Elliott yard as he probably wouldn’t be running, would he? He’d be running in a County Hurdle or being saved for an egg and spoon race the week before or something.
“I know that sounds cynical, but I think the interest in Cheltenham is waning a bit because of the monopolisation. When you watch the Grand National weights yesterday, I found that deeply depressing.”
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It’s only about ten weeks ago that I went through the lengthy career of Not So Sleepy, writes Tony Stafford. Of course, any time in competition for a racehorse that began with a win as a juvenile nine years before is unusual. Even more remarkable was Saturday’s romp to victory in the Grade 1 Betfair Fighting Fifth Hurdle, a race switched from Newcastle the previous weekend to Sandown.
This was Not So Sleepy’s fourth run in the race and his second triumph although he had to share the previous one in 2021 with Epatante, the pair impossible to separate in a dead-heat.
The previous year, Sleepy messed about at the start and unseated his rider soon after, prompting winner Epatante’s trainer Nicky Henderson to become paranoid about what the veteran Hughie Morrison gelding might get up to at the start in subsequent meetings.
He needn’t have worried. Last year when Constitution Hill came into the picture for his first Fighting Fifth on the way to that explosive Cheltenham Champion Hurdle success, Not So Sleepy was no problem.
I spoke to Hughie on Saturday morning, and it was he that alerted me to Henderson’s withdrawal soon after 8 a.m. of Constitution Hill. Also, it stopped the hastily changed plan for Shishkin, denied a run in the Rehearsal Chase that day at Newcastle, a week on from his standing stock still at the start at Ascot.
Hughie said, “Can you believe he’s the outsider of the four that are left? When I looked at the prices, he wasn’t just the outsider, but a double-figure price.”
The opposition included two mares. One, Love Envoi, is rated higher than the Morrison horse and, like the other, You Wear It Well, a Cheltenham Festival winner and fit from a recent winning comeback, they received 7lb from their two male rivals. They took the bulk of the market.
Then there was Goshen, back on his favoured right-handed way of going but hardly the most reliable. The ground was heavy, and as Hughie said, “That will be no problem for us!” And how.
Goshen had a 1lb higher rating over jumps than Not So Sleepy, but they met as recently as October in the Cesarewitch when the Morrison horse, trying in the race for the fourth time, finished seventh, 30 lengths ahead of the tailed-off Goshen. His flat-race mark of 101 exceeds Goshen’s by 15 lb, and how far did they finish apart at level weights on Saturday? - just about 15 lengths.
In 66 races since 2014, Not So Sleepy has raced six times on official heavy ground. In his three-year-old season he was third in a Group 3 race in France on such going, and next time, four years on, was second in a Nottingham handicap.
Further investigation, though, should have alerted me to what must have been one of the bets of the year [they often are with hindsight – Ed.] without the Henderson horses to complicate matters.
These are the results, the last four times he has encountered a heavy surface: December 21, 2019, Ascot Grade 3 Handicap Hurdle 85k 1st of 13, by nine lengths, 9/2 JF; December 19, 2020, Ascot Grade 3 Handicap Hurdle 57k 1st of 17 from Buzz, 20/1; September 23, 2023, Newbury 1m5f handicap off 98, 36k, made all 15/2. Then on Saturday where he bolted up by eight lengths from Love Envoi with the other pair battling for third a similar distance back, he earned owner-breeders Lord and Lady Blyth another 45 grand!
In his last ten races, he has earned his owners around 170 grand and only twice in that spell has he started at shorter than 10/1, including Saturday. His average SP in those races has been 42/1!
As I say, the bet of the year! Hope Hughie had a bit on!
What is remarkable is the way this unique horse has been able to cope with such a long time on the track; and his only breaks have been early on in his career from one turf flat season to the next and since then planned absences, but never more than seven months at most. Despite two long barren spells as far as wins went, he never slipped below a mark of 92 having won Chester’s Dee Stakes on his third time ever on the track. Derby winners Oath and Kris Kin had that race as their prep for the Classic in 1999 and 2003 respectively.
He started hurdling late, aged seven, and while he stays every yard of the 2m2f of the Cesarewitch in which he has been in the first four three times, he is quicker than most hurdlers over two miles as the trio ranged against him on Saturday found to their cost.
Expect Hughie to keep him going as a 12-year-old and already he has survived in his career longer than Alcazar, Morrison’s winner of the Group 1 Prix Royal Oak in France wen aged ten. He had a couple of runs the following season without success, racing in all 31 times.
Originally with John Dunlop, with whom he won three times, Alcazar then had two very long absences, broken only by a first-time win for Hughie at Nottingham before resuming four years and four months after his last run for Dunlop.
In effect then, his active career could be regarded as six seasons. Not So Sleepy will be embarking on his 11th if he remains in training.
It was great that Betfair found room on the Sandown card to switch the race on a day when of the 41 races on offer around the country – Wetherby was abandoned – one was sponsored by the Pertemps Group, a qualifier for its long-standing Final at Cheltenham in March and one a Rachael Blackmore charity vehicle. The other 39 were all bookie-backed.
It was very nice money at both Aintree, where Boylesports underwrote the entire card of eight races including the Becher Chase, while Betfair was the benefactor of the Sandown card in its entirety. Coral got a nice Black Friday deal for the rather bargain basement (in comparison) card at Chepstow, which featured the Trial for their forthcoming Coral Grand National on the course just after Christmas: Gary Moore won that and a couple of nice pots at Sandown, too.
The two all-weather cards at Newcastle and Wolverhampton were shared between Bet UK and Bet MGM – reckon there might be some connection there! I mean that in the nicest possible way, of course.
There was big money on offer for the Grade 1 races at Sandown and the top prizes at Aintree, but it does pose the question, what would happen if the big bookmakers decided to take a unified stand and withdraw their support with little warning or as their deals expired?
In Ireland, there was a decent card at Navan, featuring a Listed handicap hurdle, a Grade 3 steeplechase, and the Foxrock Cup, but nothing like what will be on offer over there for the days immediately after Christmas. Still there was €130k to be sliced up.
I do like the feel of the variety of race sponsors, emphasising the homely feel to Irish jump racing. It started off with Mervyn Gray Construction; then the Headfort Arms Hotel, the Tote (what happened to them and race sponsorship over here?); Bective Stud, Tea Rooms and Apartments (love to stay there!), Durnin Workshop and Timeless Sash Windows. Oh for 1990!
As well as their three winners and a third, which pushed stable earnings beyond £100,000 on Saturday, Gary and Jayne Moore must have been still brimming with pride on the news that eldest son Ryan, unbelievably now a 40-year-old, was awarded the World’s Best Jockey accolade in Hong Kong on Friday evening.
He was there to ride four Aidan O’Brien horses in the handsomely-endowed International turf races at Sha Tin yesterday. In the first of them, the twelve-furlong Vase, Warm Heart ran another good race in defeat where, as when caught late by Inspiral at the Breeders’ Cup, she led into the last furlong but ultimately finished third to the Andre Fabre-trained Junko.
Two disappointments followed, but in the Cup, although not winning, anyone watching his ride on Luxembourg, finishing a short head second to the favourite Romantic Warrior in that mile and a quarter showpiece, would not question Moore’s best in the world status.
Always a couple of lengths behind the favourite on the way round, Luxembourg looked likely to be swallowed up as the challengers queued up entering the final furlong. With the favourite running on doggedly, another disappointment loomed, but Ryan conjured a final flourish, narrowly fending off his two nearest rivals and getting within an agonising short head of the fully extended winner.
In just missing the £2.1 million first prize, the Aidan O’Brien/Coolmore/Westerberg team still picked up £805,000 for second place, only £80k less than Auguste Rodin collected in the Derby. Also, it was considerably more than the £712k Auguste Rodin garnered when holding off Luxembourg in the Irish Champion Stakes on yesterday’s runner-up’s latest appearance.
The winner, a son of Acclamation, has earned more than £12 million in claiming 12 of 17 races since being bought by the Hong Kong Jockey Club for 300k at the 2019 Tattersalls Book 2 yearling auction. I will be writing next week about the various excitements in the same ring last week when one mare fetched 4.5 million guineas.
The other star yesterday was Golden Sixty, in the Mile. Like Romantic Warrior a 27/20 chance on the day, he made the local punters very happy, making short work of his field, bringing his career stats to 26 wins in 30 career starts, and pushing his earnings beyond £16 million.
Fighting Fifth hero Not So Sleepy could head straight to the Champion Hurdle after trainer Hughie Morrison ruled out a Christmas clash with Constitution Hill.
While testing conditions led to the withdrawal of National Hunt racing’s headline act, as well as his stablemate Shishkin, nothing should be taken away from Morrison’s durable veteran, who was winning the Grade One contest for a second time, having dead-heated with Epatante two years ago.
The 11-year-old proved himself as good as ever in accounting for a pair of Cheltenham Festival-winning mares in Love Envoi and You Wear It Well, and is reported to have taken his exertions in his stride.
“To be honest, he’s taken it so well I’m embarrassed,” Morrison said on Sunday morning.
“He really has taken it well, I don’t think he had a hard race yesterday.
“I think the critical thing is he’s as good as anything on heavy ground, or very soft. If you take a proper line on the form book, he’s run to over 160, which is extraordinary for an 11-year-old.
“Obviously some people won’t take that as read, but if you take a line through You Wear It Well, who had form on the ground and everything else, I have no doubt we’d have frightened Constitution Hill.”
Nicky Henderson’s superstar will now make his belated seasonal debut in the Christmas Hurdle at Kempton on Boxing Day, but Not So Sleepy will not be among his rivals.
Morrison added: “He hates Kempton. I took him there in February for a gallop with Quickthorn before he went to Dubai and while he didn’t mind going left-handed, when I sent him right-handed he pulled himself up, so he won’t go anywhere near Kempton.
“We’ll keep all options open on the basis we could put him in the Champion Hurdle and one day it might be heavy, as long as he trains well.
“He was fifth in the Champion Hurdle last season when I didn’t feel I had him there as well I would have liked him, but as we saw when he won on the Flat at Newbury (in September) and again yesterday, he’s back to his best if not better.”
With Not So Sleepy clearly still loving the game, thoughts of retirement are not on Morrison’s mind.
“We’re always very mindful of it, we have been for the last four years,” he said.
“Three weeks ago he schooled the best he’s ever schooled. Having not seen anything since the Champion Hurdle, he went over some mini fences and really attacked them.
“He loves running fresh. He didn’t hardly blow at all yesterday – considering he’d run and won on that ground, he had an abnormally light blow.
“If we went for the Champion Hurdle, he wouldn’t have another run, and then later on next year you might think of giving him one run in September somewhere and going for a third Fighting Fifth again at Newcastle, or wherever it is.”
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Not So Sleepy stayed on best of all to win the rescheduled Betfair Fighting Fifth Hurdle at Sandown.
Saved from Newcastle’s abandoned card last weekend, the race lost plenty of its lustre when Nicky Henderson withdrew the current champion hurdler Constitution Hill and stablemate Shishkin.
That meant just four went to post, with Goshen and You Wear It Well setting a strong enough gallop in the conditions.
By the second last those two had done their running while Not So Sleepy, who turns 12 in a few weeks, was still on the bridle under Sean Bowen.
Love Envoi, who had not really been travelling throughout, soon appeared on the scene but approaching the last Not So Sleepy, who dead-heated in the race with Epatante in 2021, quickened eight lengths clear.
It was a noteworthy success for Bowen, who also holds a sizeable lead in the race to become champion jockey.
“You can see why Nicky didn’t want to turn up,” quipped a delighted Morrison.
“That was a Grade One, those mares were Grade One mares, Goshen should have won a Grade One and he has dead-heated in a Grade One. Whenever conditions are right he is a Grade One horse.
“I’m thrilled, this is the race we have aimed for since Newbury and it is a great relief that we are here.
“It’s great for the team and Raj who leads him up, rides him every day and gets ran away with at home. You have to keep it simple at home and he is a legend. This is his 10th season racing and he has lost none of his enthusiasm and he is better than ever.
“He is magnificent, he’s a legend, he is absolutely unique. He runs away with his jockey everyday and you can’t take him to half the gallops because he will plant and do things like that. But he was in the mood today, he looked really well and funny enough in the Cesarewitch didn’t look as well as I thought he would. If you looked at him today in the paddock he looked magnificent.
“Coming to the second last I thought we had it won and then I thought we were beat. But Sean said as soon as they came to him he just picked up again. He did what he did at Newbury and the reason he can keep going is you just don’t know how good he is.”
Bowen added: “It’s gruelling ground but it was something he seemed to relish today.
“It’s amazing to get a ride on that sort of horse. He was the outsider and probably had a lot to do, but on his day is a very very good horse.
“He got to the front two out and had a look around at the last, but he was always going to win when he heard someone behind him.
“It’s amazing to get these Grade Ones, it’s brilliant.”
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Hughie Morrison’s One For Bobby is set for an outing on Qipco British Champions Day – but conditions will dictate if Stay Alert joins her stablemate in the line-up for the British Champions Fillies & Mares Stakes at Ascot.
The Berkshire track will be a fitting place for the four-year-old to end a successful season as it is the place her breeder Frank Dunne saddled the great Stanerra to register a Royal Ascot double in 1983.
She has won twice in four starts since joining Morrison ahead of the 2023 campaign and having secured Listed honours at Nottingham on her stable bow, she added a Group Three at Vichy in the summer.
One For Bobby was last seen finishing well held in the Prix Jean Romanet at Deauville but her handler is now prepared to give the daughter of Frankel another opportunity at Group One level.
“She didn’t run her race the other day at Deauville and had a sore foot,” said Morrison.
“If we got her back to form, she might surprise a few people. I think she will get the one-mile-four, whether she is over the top or not we will find out on the day.
“She has got a Group and Listed win and that was what we were asked to do. She won at Nottingham and then won in France.”
On the potential participation of Stay Alert, Morrison added: “She’s a possible, but you wouldn’t want too much more rain.”
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They raced for a lot of money in Ireland yesterday, the Friends of Curragh Irish Cesarewitch carrying a £292k first prize, for which 30 horses turned up, writes Tony Stafford. You would have won a lot of money, too, if you had found the Joseph O’Brien-trained winner, the potential heir to the Ballydoyle job one might suggest, sending out 150/1 shot Magellan Strait for a victory which prompted a quiz from the stewards.
The magical Joseph might well have been a little more confident of his shortest-priced horse of four, third home Dawn Rising, who had won Ascot’s Queen Alexandra Stakes as the 2/1 favourite under Ryan Moore at Royal Ascot back in June.
The two O’Brien stayers were split by another veteran of big-race success in the UK, Dermot Weld’s Falcon Eight, successful in the 2021 Chester Cup under Frankie Dettori.
The winner and second do not have the much less well-endowed but still probably more prestigious Newmarket version in three weekends time on their agenda, but 13 from yesterday’s race do, and I’ve managed to find another 11 from various races over the past couple of days even including an unplaced runner in the Preis von Europa in Cologne, Germany, yesterday.
That was the Saeed bin Suroor-trained Live Your Dream, who is very high up in the weights. This 14 was bolstered by Saturday’s Turners Cesarewitch Trial at Newmarket, won nicely by Andrew Balding’s Grand Providence, clearly enjoying the extended trip. Eight of the nine that followed him over the line have the big-race entry.
Ryan Moore, amazingly, was back after riding in Sydney the day before, but his mount, Aidan’s Tower Of London, understandably favourite after his creditable fourth behind stablemate Continuous in the St Leger only eight days earlier at Doncaster, could not make his lenient mark tell.
In all, Willie Mullins had six runners in the big race. The ease with which Ireland’s champion jumps trainer knocks off our big flat long-distance races, matched only really by his main Cheltenham protagonist Nicky Henderson, is well chronicled, but here he was well and truly on the back foot.
Of course, all his sextet, plus one in a consolation race for those missing out on the big one, have Newmarket entries, where he will be aiming to add to his hat-trick from 2018-20. One of those, Stratum, was in the field but Brighton and Hove Albion FC’s chairman Tony Bloom was probably far too engaged watching his team beat Bournemouth (boo! – Ed.) than to take more than a passing notice of his veteran’s 25th place.
Expect an upgrade if he turns up at HQ, and the same probably goes for Jackfinbar (8th), Lot Of Joy (11th), Echoes In Rain (13th), Mt Leinster (22nd) and M C Muldoon (27th after making the running for David Manasseh and partners).
Echoes in Rain had finished second in the inaugural big-money Irish Ces last year, behind the then Aidan -trained Mr Waterville, who is now with Chris Waller in Australia. Ryan rode him into fourth place at Rosehill on Saturday and no doubt he has the Melbourne Cup as his main objective as had Tower Of London. Maybe the latter raid may be under review.
But the one trial that caught most of us out – yet it shouldn’t have if we had examined the very extensive history of his career – was the all-the-way gutsy win of 11-year-old Not So Sleepy in a quite valuable (by UK standards) 1m5½f handicap at Newbury.
Since making a winning debut over a mile as a juvenile at Nottingham almost nine years ago, the home-bred Not So Sleepy has now won ten races for Hughie Morrison, five each on the flat and over jumps. Not So Sleepy has raced 63 times (46 on the flat) with six second and five third places along with ten fourth’s, including in the Cesarewitch’s of 2019 and 2020. Under both codes he has won around a quarter of a million and nudged over a combined £500k on Saturday.
When he won his third-ever race in the Group 3 Dee Stakes his rating jumped up to 107 after that Derby trial. It has never dropped below 94 despite two long losing sequences – 13 in succession after Chester over the next 18 months, then another 15 following his Epsom Derby Day handicap win as a five-year-old.
Running well enough with places in tough races not to get much respite from the BHA officials, Not So Sleepy got a late and in many circles highly questionable switch to hurdling as a seven-year-old. The cynics were preening themselves after he was far too free on debut at Kempton, but he then bolted up at Wincanton which earned a 125 rating. One more pulled up run ended that mixed campaign.
So now it was back to the flat, for another six winless runs, but a portent of what might be in the future was a fourth in his first try at the Cesarewitch behind Stratum. Now it was back to hurdling, winning two Ascot handicaps by making all in devastating fashion, his mark already up to 144 by the time he turned out for the Betfair Hurdle at Newbury the following February.
That year, the big field produced two false starts and after being in a great position to jump first time round, Not So Sleepy found himself hampered at the eventual departure and the then eight-year-old was never in contention. Hughie and his owners Lord and Lady Blyth still had the ambition to run in the Champion Hurdle, but he was pulled up.
A break followed until the autumn, when under Graham Lee he won a Pontefract handicap off that career lowest 94 before his fourth place to Mullins’ Great White Shark at Newmarket in Cesarewitch number two. He then resumed over hurdles, jinking and unseating at the first flight in the 2020 Fighting Fifth won by Epatante, before gaining a second win in the Betfair Exchange Hurdle at Ascot.
This gave Morrison great satisfaction as he beat a former stable-companion, Buzz, whom the owners had moved to Henderson after Morrison had successfully managed physical issues in his early days on the flat.
He then ran a much improved race, fifth in Honeysuckle’s first Champion Hurdle, before taking in the Chester Cup, finishing a close seventh. He still got his lengthy summer break, but instead of a third run at Newmarket, a close second in a Doncaster handicap was the prelude to a dead-heat with Epatante in the 20201 Fighting Fifth before a fifth place behind the same J P McManus mare in the Christmas Hurdle at Kempton and the same position, a little closer than the previous year, behind Honeysuckle in her repeat championship.
He continued with two relatively disappointing runs in summer 2022 but was back in top form with a third after taking up the running a mile out in last year’s Cesarewitch.
Three hurdles runs, two behind the new star Constitution Hill, including once more in his fourth Champion Hurdle, preceded the usual summer break. And you can guess the rest.
He returned at Newbury on Saturday, his trainer joking before the race, having heard the news that Constitution Hill was to continue hurdling, with a wry: “Whatever happens today, I can categorically state that Not So Sleepy will NOT be going chasing this winter.”
So next month, he will be trying to match another of his rival Henderson’s achievements. Nicky won the 2008 Cesarewitch with the 11-year-old Caracciola who proceeded to win the Queen Alexandra at age 12. Morrison has a Group 1 win on his record with 10-year-old Alcazar, but if Not So Sleepy does the deed at the fourth time of asking, that would be a bigger achievement to my mind.
Both the Cesarewitch and Cambridgeshire began life in 1839 and they are two of my favourite races. I was hoping to write a piece today outlining why I thought Dylan Cunha’s Silver Sword was a good thing to win the race next Saturday, but the trainer is unwilling to run him back so soon after his eye-catching run last week in Listed company at Sandown. He prefers to wait for a race he has in mind at Santa Anita in November. If only!
In his absence, I would love to see William Knight make up for last year’s unlucky defeat of Dual Identity, who won most impressively recently at Sandown. All we can hope is that Knight, who has had no luck this year, might have it turn his way this weekend for a change.
- TS
https://www.geegeez.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/NotSoSleepy_Newbury.png319830Tony Staffordhttps://www.geegeez.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/geegeez_banner_new_170x78.pngTony Stafford2023-09-25 07:16:262023-09-25 07:16:26Monday Musings: Still Not Sleepy
Not So Sleepy, without a win since dead-heating with Epatante in the 2021 Fighting Fifth Hurdle, made all the running to win the Dubai Duty Free Autumn Cup Handicap at Newbury.
Hughie Morrison’s stable stalwart is now 11 years of age and was last seen finishing fifth in the Champion Hurdle behind Constitution Hill.
Back on the Flat, he was carrying top weight in the valuable contest off a mark of 98 having been rated as high as 107 back in 2015 after winning the Dee Stakes at Chester.
Oisin Murphy adopted front-running tactics, just as another stayer from Morrison’s stable, Quickthorn, carries out to such great effect.
Ralph Beckett’s Salt Bay laid down a serious challenge inside the final furlong but Not So Sleepy was not to be denied and won by two lengths at 15-2.
“The plan was to have a nice prep for the Cesarewitch and then go for the Fighting Fifth but now he’s picked up a penalty,” said Morrison.
“We can always take on Constitution Hill again as a pacemaker or even go chasing!
“He came back at the beginning of July and has been cantering away. He just goes to the bottom of the woodchip and comes back again.
“All his work is done on his own but he did have a gallop on the all-weather when I took him with another horse to Lambourn the other day.”
Beckett’s Balance Play (3-1 joint-favourite) had disappointed on his hat-trick bid when favourite for a valuable race at the Ebor meeting but got back on the winning trail in straightforward fashion in the Dubai Duty Free Handicap for Hector Crouch.
Beckett said: “He’s a tough beggar who puts it all in but York was a disaster – I thought with his tiny feet he would handle fast ground but he never got into any kind of rhythm.
“He’s really got the hang of racing now but that fast ground at York threw him off.
“Today it all went to plan and he’s perfect for the November Handicap while he’s also in the Horses in Training Sale.”
Beckett was also on the mark in the Horris Hill School EBF Novice Stakes in which he was responsible for the first two home.
It seemed as if Laura Pearson had nicked it when New Chelsea went several lengths clear but he began to tire inside the final furlong and was reeled in by Feigning Madness and Hector Crouch.
“He’s very backward and immature and has taken a long time to come to hand,” said Beckett of the debut winner.
Pearl D’or (7-2) won the Conundrum Consulting Handicap for James Doyle and David O’Meara
https://www.geegeez.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/5f40b3b4-63cd-4b1e-b953-24aaa66ca809.jpg5121024Geegeez Newshttps://www.geegeez.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/geegeez_banner_new_170x78.pngGeegeez News2023-09-23 14:16:332023-09-23 15:50:05Not So Sleepy rolls back the years with Autumn Cup win
Tom Marquand executed a perfect front-running ride aboard Quickthorn to win the Al Shaqab Goodwood Cup.
Trained by Hughie Morrison, Marquand had adopted very similar tactics last season in the Lonsdale Cup at York when beating the reopposing Coltrane by 14 lengths.
Quickthorn had failed to quite match that level of performance since, but did return to winning ways last time out back at York in a Listed race and the form was subsequently franked when the second, Israr, won a Group Two next time out.
Marquand stole a few lengths early and then once again on the brow of the hill, when the field might expect to start making ground, but the jockey ensured there was no let up in the pace.
At one stage he was around 20 lengths clear but Oisin Murphy on Coltrane, who was leading the pack, seemed content in where he was with half a mile to go.
The riders of Eldar Eldarov, Giavellotto, Emily Dickinson and Gold Cup winner Courage Mon Ami all suddenly realised Quickthorn was not stopping, but the victor had a decisive lead.
Quickthorn won by six lengths from Emily Dickinson, who prevailed in a photo for second with Coltrane, with Eldar Eldarov a further short head back in fourth.
“Lady Blyth (owner) has bred a Grade One (over jumps) and a Group One winner, not many people have done that,” said Morrison.
“I was quite excited going up the hill, we saw what he did last year. I’ve always felt he needed a bit of juice in the ground, his autumn flops in the last couple of years are when he’s just gone over the top.
“As you can see, he just puts so much into it that he probably deserves to go over the top some time between now and September.”
When asked if he fancied a crack over hurdles and taking on Constitution Hill Morrison quipped: “I don’t think that would be fair on Constitution Hill!
“He’s just a galloper, he’s fantastic to train. Watching him every morning he just goes like he did to post, like a three-mile chaser, the other horses have to do about three strides to his one.
“We’ll enjoy this a lot. Tom got the fractions fantastically right, as he did at York. Jason (Hart) got them exactly right when he rode him at York and I thank him for giving him such a fantastic ride last time.
“We all know how to ride him to his strengths, he’s a galloper, pure and simple, and we’re very lucky to have him.”
Marquand said: “It was a fantastic performance and he’s a fun horse to ride. He goes out wearing his heart on his sleeve, you know that everybody knows what you’re going to do and they’ve got to try and stop you almost.
“That was a huge thrill. All credit to Hughie Morrison and the team at home for keeping him right, and Lord and Lady Blyth – it’s fantastic. He’s had some great days, but he deserved a Group One and it would have felt wrong if he had never got one.”
On whether it was the plan to go that far clear, he added: “It’s a case of going and finding a rhythm and wherever that puts you, it puts you. Obviously we showed that in the Lonsdale Cup last year and it just feels like the right way to ride him. Thankfully I got it right today.
“Once I lit him up at the three pole, it was evident that we were going to get home – it was just whether something would have exceptional ability to come and catch him. It’s a nice feeling to go to that sort of race with that amount of stamina underneath you. Big performance.”
Murphy said of Coltrane: “It was obvious in the first furlong that Lone Eagle, Tashkhan and Broome – those horses you’d expect to go forward – weren’t going forward, so I changed my plan and decided to let Coltrane roll down to the first turn.
“I thought Tom was very clever – round those sharp bends, he allowed Quickthorn to really slip on. You can only go so fast around those turns, because they are quite sharp, and by the time we turned to go back uphill, he had a sizeable advantage.
“He (Quickthorn) had to use up a fair bit of energy albeit basically going downhill to get away from us. But often you pay for that sort of ride and in the last furlong I wasn’t sure if he (Quickthorn) would stop completely, but I probably cost myself second position by trying to close the gap from three down.
“Quickthorn has a massive pair of lungs and covers so much ground, so he has enough pace to get away from a high-class field. I was aware of what could happen, and he was still able to do it.”
https://www.geegeez.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/273207303-scaled.jpg12802560Geegeez Newshttps://www.geegeez.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/geegeez_banner_new_170x78.pngGeegeez News2023-08-01 16:01:212023-08-01 16:50:05Quickthorn makes all for remarkable Goodwood Cup success
Stay Alert looks set to head to France in a bid to gain some form of compensation for her unfortunate runner-up effort in the Pretty Polly Stakes at the Curragh.
The Group One contest produced a somewhat messy conclusion as the George Boughey-trained winner Via Sistina drifted across the track in the final furlong, impeding the placed horses in winning by two lengths under Jamie Spencer, who was suspended for six days.
Ben and Sir Martyn Arbib, who own Hughie Morrison’s second-placed Stay Alert, appealed against the decision not to revise the placings, but to no avail.
Though Stay Alert holds an entry in the Yorkshire Oaks on August 24, Morrison is favouring a trip to the Group One Prix Jean Romanet at Deauville four days earlier.
He said: “Ideally, I would go to France for the Romanet, over a mile and a quarter.
“The Yorkshire Oaks is afterwards and we can go there if we were not happy with something going to France. The Yorkshire Oaks is Plan B.”
One For Bobby is another talented filly at the Summerdown yard and she landed her biggest career success to date in the Group Three Grand Prix de Vichy on Wednesday evening.
Formerly trained by Johnny Murtagh, One For Bobby defeated Bolthole by three-quarters of a length in the 10-furlong contest.
Morrison will try to keep his two talented fillies apart and has not completely ruled out heading to Munich for the Group One Bayerisches Zuchtrennen, over a similar distance, on Sunday week.
“If we can keep them apart we will,” said Morrison. “One goes better on softer ground and one is better on faster ground, but they both go on good ground.
“I will talk to the owners and try to keep them apart.
“Actually, One For Bobby is in a Group One in Munich on Sunday week, because we were keeping our options open.
“If it was in three weeks after that (run), I would probably be going to Munich.
“I haven’t had a long chat to the owner yet, but prior to having won a Group race, (we felt) a Group One place would be at least as good as a Group Two win, so be brave and aim high.
“I think she won in conditions where you’d think she might be better in softer ground. She could win a weak Group One.
“She had been Group Two-placed last year and she is rated 104, so if they take the form at face value, she will go up to 109. The runner-up was rated 111.
“I think Munich is unlikely, but we’ll keep options open. You could go for the Prix Vermeille (at ParisLongchamp in September) and it might suit her, a mile and a half in France, we’ll see.”
Meanwhile, crack stayer Quickthorn, who bounced back to form when making most of the running to beat subsequent Group Two Princess of Wales’s Stakes scorer Israr in a Listed race at York last month, remains on course for the Al Shaqab Goodwood Cup.
Morrison was primed to send the Lady Blyth-owned six-year-old to ParisLongchamp in a bid to win the Group Two Prix Maurice de Nieuil for a second successive season.
However, connections instead favoured a trip to the Sussex Downs for the two-mile Group One contest, for which he is a 10-1 shot with Coral.
“We were going to go to France, but the owners want to have a go at the Goodwood Cup, so that’s where we’re going,” said Morrison. “He’s in good form and that York form worked out pretty well didn’t it?”
https://www.geegeez.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/272833546.jpg10622125Geegeez Newshttps://www.geegeez.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/geegeez_banner_new_170x78.pngGeegeez News2023-07-21 12:03:542023-07-21 12:03:54Stay Alert could bid for Pretty Polly compensation in France
Connections of Stay Alert have lodged an appeal against the decision of the Curragh stewards not to reverse the placings in Saturday’s Group One Pretty Polly Stakes.
The Hughie Morrison-trained four-year-old was beaten two lengths by George Boughey’s Via Sistina in the 10-furlong contest, but the Jamie Spencer-ridden winner hampered a number of rivals in the closing stages.
The interference occurred as the field approached the final furlong when Via Sistina hung right into the path of eventual fourth Rosscarbery, with jockey Billy Lee forced to check his mount, while the Ronan Whelan-ridden Stay Alert was also tightened up by the winner.
While the Irish Horseracing Authority Regulatory Board confirmed Spencer has appealed the severity of the six-day ban for careless riding he received following the race, Morrison felt the incident had proved crucial to the result.
He said: “The connections have appealed. As he (Spencer) pulled that horse out, it was hanging right.
“He then continued to ride it for possibly a furlong and he didn’t make any correction until he’d seriously endangered two horses and two jockeys.
“If they can tell me they didn’t feel endangered, then end of story. It was hanging all the way and should have been corrected at least 100 metres before the incidents took place.
“When you get stopped in your run when you are quickening up and you have 100 yards to make up three lengths, you are lucky to make up one.
“Any other sport and you’d be thrown out, more so because the fourth horse (Rosscarbery) was prevented from coming third, which was quite significant when you are talking about a Group One.”
Stay Alert had won the Group Three Legacy Cup at Newbury in September and had dropped back in trip on her seasonal bow when fifth to Free Wind in the Middleton at York in May.
Equipped with a first-time tongue strap, she travelled well and showed marked improvement at the Curragh, and Morrison added: “It helped her, made her concentrate and did everything we expected it to do. I don’t think she has a wind issue, it just helped her concentrate on the job.
“She showed how good she is. She is in the Yorkshire Oaks and there are a couple of races in France. Those are in the middle of August – there is nothing else for her.
“She could go for a colts’ race somewhere, that might be tempting, but you never know what the ground will be like in Germany, and you’d like to win a big race before you go to France.
“This was the target for her all year, so it was frustrating. We got everything right, but hit the crossbar. We’d like to win a good one and we’d like a clean fight as well.”
Quickthorn has proved a real money-spinner for owner Lady Blyth in the past few seasons and he took his earnings over the half-million mark when landing the Sky Bet Race To The Ebor Grand Cup Stakes at York.
In typically gritty fashion, the Hughie Morrison-trained six-year-old led after three furlongs of the mile-and-three-quarter Listed contest under Jason Hart.
Despite looking like a sitting duck throughout the last half-mile, he had plenty in reserve to fend off market leader Israr and score by a length and a half.
Morrison was cautious about running the crack stayer on quicker ground, but having his hand reluctantly forced, admitted the 7-4 second-favourite coped with the surface at a track on which he was so brilliant in last year’s Lonsdale Cup.
“I think what York do is produce level ground,” said the East Ilsley handler. “You didn’t see any dust kicking up today.
“A lot of horses, jointy horses, you can get away with level ground. They can get jarred up, but you don’t injure them.
“When it is rough fast ground, that is when you can get problems with these horses.
“He likes a bit of cut in the ground and you want to do right by the horse.
“At least he’s won a stakes race this year. He drilled them really. He outstayed the second, I think. He went away in the last 20 yards.”
Quickthorn is set to follow a similar path to last season after recording the eighth success of his 21-race career.
“I would imagine we will look at the (Group Two) Prix Maurice de Nieuil, a race which he won last year at Longchamp, then I think back to York. Then he deserves a rest, I think.
“I’d love the handicapper to drop him 3lb and then we’d go to the Ebor. I suspect that won’t happen, though!
“I thought Jason gave him a really good ride today. He let the horse find his rhythm, not force him.
“Over a mile and six, given that two miles is his trip really, he found the right rhythm.
“I thought he was good and I thought he was going to get swallowed up several times, but he just kept going.”
Quinault (15-2) made it a five-timer for Stuart Williams, taking the Oakmere Homes Supporting Macmillan Sprint Handicap.
Connor Planas’ mount had a head to spare over Washington Heights as he continued his upward curve.
His winning spree started in a lowly Class 6 handicap at Chelmsford in April, and after wins at Brighton and two more at Newmarket, he overcame his biggest test thus far with flying colours.
Though entered in the Palace of Holyrood House Stakes at Royal Ascot next week, he is unlikely to make a quick return.
Explaining his improvement, Williams said: “He was in the Horses In Training Sale after Godolphin bought him from the breeze-ups for quite a lot of money.
“He was very difficult to settle and basically ran away in his only race for them.
“He was being awkward at home. I think they gelded him and tried to start with him again, but he was still being awkward, so they put him in the sales – rightly, in my opinion. They have so many good horses, they don’t want one who is being a pain in the backside.
“We quite liked him, so we decided to take a punt on him. We spent two months on the treadmill with him and took baby steps, trying to settle him.
“It was the same in his first two races for us, tearing away. He was keen early and not relaxing at all, but we have just taken things very quietly and now it is paying off. He is repaying us handsomely.
“He is getting better and it was a big day for him today, with a big crowd, walking across the middle of the track and it was a big field.
“His run at Newmarket helped him, but it wasn’t like the hustle and bustle of York.”
Options are no open for the son of Oasis Dream, although a trip to the Royal meeting looks doubtful.
“It is very unlikely he will run next week. It was just to tick a box in case we didn’t manage to get to the races,” Williams added. “He is in the Bunbury Cup and he’ll definitely get seven furlongs, no problem. Seven furlongs on the July course might suit him.
“But I might try to find another three-year-old race for him before we step him up to older company.”
Saeed bin Suroor advertised the good form of his yard ahead of Royal Ascot when Wild Lion (8-1) took the seven-furlong Sky Bet Handicap by half a length under Kieran O’Neill.
“It was a good performance,” said the trainer. “I think the cheekpieces may have helped him today.”
https://www.geegeez.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/272647342-scaled.jpg12802560Geegeez Newshttps://www.geegeez.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/geegeez_banner_new_170x78.pngGeegeez News2023-06-17 16:44:552023-06-17 16:44:55Quickthorn refuses to give way in Grand Cup victory
There were famous colours in the winner’s enclosure at Nottingham after One For Bobby landed a telling blow for Hughie Morrison in the British EBF Nottinghamshire Oaks.
The daughter of Frankel, who placed in Group Two company when trained by Johnny Murtagh last term, was adorned in the colours seen to great effect by Frank Dunne – the only Irish trainer to win the Japan Cup, having done so in 1983 with dual Royal Ascot scorer Stanerra.
Dunne died in December last year aged 79, but his legacy has been kept going by his surviving partner Ann Marshall and One For Bobby did the silks justice at Colwick Park.
Making her debut for Morrison, she was sent off 17-2 under a chance spare ride for Rob Hornby and thrived in the soft ground at the East Midlands track to hunt down the front-running Pink Carnation and record a one-length success.
“She has never put a foot wrong at home,” said Morrison. “She came in looking well and she has worked well and when she was 16-1 when we left home this morning I was amazed because we fancied her.
“It read like a decent race and I thought she would like the ground, that helps. We had worked out at home she likes the ground and she is in good form. She has been working with a good filly.
“It’s very competitive in Ireland and Ann Marshall who bred her thought there might be plenty of opportunities here so this is target one hit.”
Future plans for One For Bobby remain fluid, but the Summerdown Stables handler did not rule out raiding missions to France later in the year, while he also feels she is capable of stepping up in distance.
“I think she will stay further, I think she will get a mile and a half,” Morrison added.
“She’s done a lot of running on fast ground last year and I think some cut just suits.
“This was the main plan for her, but we’ll have a look and see if there are some fillies pattern races which could suit. I think we’ll give her the jabs needed for her to go to France.
“She carries some very famous colours of the late Frank Dunne, who sadly died last year. His partner (Ann Marshall) has carried it all on, so it’s lovely.”
Hornby said: “I didn’t know a lot about her, I don’t think many did with her coming over from Ireland. She seems very uncomplicated and enjoyed the conditions.
“I wasn’t worried about Danny (Tudhope on Pink Carnation), Hughie was confident she would stay further and it’s quite testing ground. It was nice to have a target to aim at and she stays.”
https://www.geegeez.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/96f95455-e4b6-4d18-a619-08684369e1e8-scaled.jpg12802560Geegeez Newshttps://www.geegeez.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/geegeez_banner_new_170x78.pngGeegeez News2023-05-02 16:20:302023-05-02 16:20:30One For Bobby swoops for success in Nottingham feature
Not So Sleepy could return to Cheltenham in March for a fourth crack at the Unibet Champion Hurdle.
The Lady Blyth-owned 11-year-old, whose crowning moment came when dead-heating with Epatante in the Grade One Fighting Fifth Hurdle at Newcastle in November 2021, is also a Listed winner on the Flat.
Third in the Cesarewitch at Newmarket in October, he has had two subsequent runs over hurdles, finishing third to Constitution Hill in defence of his Fighting Fifth crown, and when upped in trip to be last of five behind Paisley Park in the rearranged Long Walk Hurdle at Kempton on Boxing Day.
“Not So Sleepy is fine,” said Morrison. “We have given him a bit of a break since he last ran at Kempton. He just doesn’t operate there.
“He always runs best fresh, but there is something about the ground there.”
The Beat Hollow gelding has won five of his 16 starts over hurdles and amassed over £460,000 in a 61-race career under both codes.
The East Ilsley handler will now aim Not So Sleepy at the Champion Hurdle, where he has finished a respectable fifth in 2021 and sixth last season.
“He always runs well at Cheltenham,” added Morrison. “I think the general feeling is that, at the age of 11, it is time to hang up his boots quite soon and if we feel comfortable, we’ll just take him to Cheltenham.
“If the top ones turn up, there won’t be more than 10 runners and it is a horse race.
“There are a lot of ifs and buts – somebody has got to turn up – and I think that will be his next run.”
https://www.geegeez.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/263980133-scaled.jpg12802560Geegeez Newshttps://www.geegeez.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/geegeez_banner_new_170x78.pngGeegeez News2023-01-16 11:20:142023-01-16 11:25:14Not So Sleepy set to tread familiar Cheltenham path
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