Suspended animation in fiction which is indistinguishable from death. In American fiction, the first story to deal with suspended animation is the tale of Rip Van Winkle, a short story by American author Washington Irving published in 1819 as well as the name of the story's fictional protagonist. In the story, a British subject in the American colonies wanders into the Catskill Mountains in the years before the American Revolutionary War, and finds a group of fairies, whose moonshine he drinks. He then falls asleep for 20 years, and returns to his village in what is now the United States, finding his home town
Rip Van Winkle (horse) not to handle the track. Rip Van Winkle's three-year-old season was disrupted by injury, and his four-year-old campaign was also set back due to niggling injury problems. In his first start, he finished well behind Goldikova and Paco Boy in the Queen Anne Stakes at Royal Ascot. He then tried for a repeat performance in the Sussex Stakes, where he was beaten into second late on by the three-year-old star Canford Cliffs. Rip Van Winkle then went back up to a mile and 2 furlongs in Yorks International Stakes. Despite his lack of a win that season, he went off