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Somnus (horse)

Somnus
Sire Pivotal
Grandsire Polar Falcon
Dam Midnight’s Reward
Damsire Night Shift
Sex Gelding
Foaled 27 April 2000
Country United Kingdom
Colour Bay
Breeder Lady Legard
Owner Lady Legard
Trainer Tim Easterby
John Quinn
Record 43: 10-4-1
Earnings £ 743,966
Major wins
Two-Year-Old Trophy (2002)
Hackwood Stakes (2003)
Haydock Sprint Cup (2003)
Prix Maurice de Gheest (2004)
Prix de la Forêt (2004)
Awards
European Champion Sprinter (2004)
Last updated on August 25, 2007

Somnus is a retired British champion Thoroughbred racehorse. One of the best European two-year-olds in 2002, he developed into a leading sprinter the following year when he won the Group One Haydock Sprint Cup. As a four-year-old he won two more Group One races in France- the Prix Maurice de Gheest (2004) and the Prix de la Forêt- and was named European Champion Sprinter at the Cartier Racing Awards. He continued racing until being retired in 2008 at the age of eight, having won ten of his forty-three races. Unlike many sprinters, Somnus was not a pure "speed horse" and ran only once, unsuccessfully, at five furlongs: all his victories came over six or seven furlongs.

Somnus, a bay horse who was gelded before the start of his racing career, was bred at the New England Stud by Caroline, Lady Legard, who owned him with a variety of partners throughout his racing career. His sire Pivotal was a top class sprinter who won the King's Stand Stakes and the Nunthorpe Stakes in 1996. He went on to become an “excellent” sire, getting the winners of more than a thousand races across a range of distances including Kyllachy (Nunthorpe Stakes), Excellent Art (St. James's Palace Stakes) and Sariska (Oaks). Somnus’s dam, Midnight’s Reward won one minor race from eight starts and was a successful broodmare, producing at least six other winners. Somnus is inbred 3x4 to Northern Dancer (see below).

Somnus was raised at Sir Tatton Sykes's Sledmere Stud near Driffield, East Yorkshire before being sent as a yearling to the Doncaster St Leger sales in September via the Wiltshire-based Catridge Farm Stud. He was "bought in" for 13,500gns by Geoffrey Howson Bloodstock acting on behalf of his breeder. Lady Legard then sold shares in the colt to Sir Tatton Sykes and Roger Sidebottom. Somnus sent into training with Tim Easterby at Great Habton, near Malton, North Yorkshire. He stayed with Easterby until 2008, when he moved to the Settrington stable of John Quinn for his last three races.


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