Somnus causes shock

Somnus relished the rainy conditions

Somnus caused a surprise with victory over red-hot favourite Oasis Dream in the Stanley Leisure Sprint Cup at Haydock.

The 12-1 shot, trained by Tim Easterby and ridden by Ted Durcan, coped best with the softer ground after heavy rain fell just before the start.

The 8-11 favourite, who was going for a Group One treble after winning the July Cup and the Nunthorpe Stakes, led for much of the race, but tired in the last furlong and Somnus came through to win by one and a quarter lengths.

Latest racing results

Henry Candy's filly Airwave finished well for third, three-quarters of a length behind Oasis Dream

It was a second victory in this race in recent times for Easterby, who trained Pipalong to victory three years ago.

"Father (ex-trainer Peter) saw him gallop on Wednesday morning and he said 'By, that Somnus can gallop'," said Easterby.

"He goes on fast ground, but he's a lot better on soft. That's the answer, the key with him.

"It was a 48-hour declaration and I wasn't going to declare him because of the ground.

"Some of the jockeys said yesterday it was very firm, but I just left him in and hoped it rained, and it did."

Oasis Dream's connections said that the ground had not been in the colt's favour but said that they would be sticking to their original plan of going to Longchamp then to the Breeders' Cup.

"We did not know if he would handle this ground, so you never know, but it was not a good time to find out," said Teddy Beckett, racing manager for owner Khalid Abdullah.

"The original plan was to go for the Abbaye and then the Breeders' Cup Mile, and nothing has happened to change that."

---

Stanley Leisure Sprint Cup (Group One)
Six furlongs, Haydock

1 Somnus (T Durcan) 12-1
2 Oasis Dream (R Hughes) 8-11f
3 Airwave (D O'Neill) 10-3
10 ran. Dist: 1¼l, ¾l