Harry Angel

Harry Angel, an early-maturing sprint champion who claimed a Gr.1 double at three, has a Danehill-free pedigree that seems likely to suit many in our broodmare population. This shuttler to Darley’s Kelvinside, NSW, hails from a branch of the Northern Dancer sire line that has already given us champion sire Last Tycoon (IRE) and he was a Group winner at two, three and four.

THE World Champion Sprinter of 2017 Harry Angel (IRE), new to Darley in 2019, has the pedigree and race profile to become a very significant sire in Australia. He represents the Try My Best line of Northern Dancer, also responsible for Last Tycoon (IRE), and he was a dual Gr.1 winner at three, when he collected the July Cup and Haydock Sprint Cup, both 6f.

Those wins came after a two-run juvenile season which saw Harry Angel (Dark Angel-Beatrix Potterby Cadeaux Genereux) beaten a nose on debut at Ascot (a course which would prove something of a hoodoo for him) and then win the Mill Reef Stakes-Gr.2 (6f)in good style at Newbury for trainer Clive Cox.

He resumed at three with a 1.5 length second to Gimcrack winner Blue Point (giving 4lb) in the Pavilion Stakes (6f) at Ascot after fighting his jockey most of the way and then scored a stunning front-running win in the Sandy Lane Stakes-Gr.2 (6f) ay Haydock, romping home by 4.5 lengths in course record time of 1:08.56 from Second Thought.

The Commonwealth Cup-Gr.1 (6f) at Ascot for three year-olds is the British answer to our Coolmore (Ascot Vale) Stakes and with elite status since 2015 it has become the race to win for young sprinters. Harry Angel, now in the ownership of Godolphin, led the way, pressed by Coolmore pacemaker Intelligence Cross (ninth of 12) for the better part of the journey, as the leaders raced into a stiff headwind. This allowed the favourite, Coolmore-owned Caravaggio, to head Harry Angel in the final 100m and win by three-quarters of a length, with Godolphin’s Blue Point third.

First and second met again in the July Cup-Gr.1 and this time Harry Angel emerged triumphant in a race that also attracted the best older sprinters, including the Diamond Jubilee-Gr.1 trifecta The Tin Man, Tasleet and Limato. Harry Angel was with the leaders most of the journey, took control in the final furlong and had 1.25 lengths on Limato at the post with Brando (winner of the Prix Maurice de Gheest-Gr.1 next time out) third and Caravaggio fourth, on a good to firm surface.

Harry Angel wasn’t back in action until September 9 when he contested the Sprint Cup-Gr.1 at Haydock on a heavy surface that really didn’t suit him. However, he made the most of the occasion and drew clear in the final furlong to put four lengths on runner-up Tasleet on the line, with The Tin Man third and Blue Point fourth.

Back to Ascot for the Champions Sprint Stakes-Gr.1 on October 21, 2017, he was fourth to Librisa Breeze after rearing at the start and never really settling. It was his final run in a three year-old season that earned him a Timeform of 132 and saw him rated World Champion Sprinter by a panel of international handicappers, two points and more above Battaash (also by Dark Angel), Chautauqua, Lady Aurelia, Redzel and Caravaggio.

Harry Angel had four starts in 2018, a season notable for his continued unease in the starting stalls, a trait that had dogged him since his juvenile days. He kicked out in the gates before the start of the Duke of York Stakes-Gr.2 (6f) at York on May 16 but still managed to beat Brando by two lengths in 1:10.87 on a good to firm track, but lost all chance at the start next time out in the Diamond Jubilee Stakes-Gr.1 at Ascot when he had a hind leg caught in the frame of the stalls as the gates opened, leaving a puncture wound. Although deemed a runner he was 11th of 12 behind Merchant Navy. His regular jockey Adam Kirby and the starter were unaware of the horse’s predicament as the barrier blanket was covering his leg and trainer Clive Cox described the incident as “just one of those things”.

His antics in the starting stalls did not help in the Sprint Cup at Haydock next time out and although he was with the leader or led for a long part of the trip, he weakened in the final 100m to be sixth behind The Tin Man on a heavy track. His final start came at Ascot in the Champions Sprint Stakes-Gr.1 on October 20, 2018. Although he took some time to be loaded, he jumped well, chasing the winner Sands of Mali all the way as the three year-old made all the running on the soft surface.

He was beaten a length to be second with Donjuan Triumphant, 1.25 lengths back in third and Brando fourth, continuing his run of minor placings at Ascot. Harry Angel retired to Dalham Hall Stud (£20,000) in 2019 with five wins and four seconds in 12 starts and a final season Timeform of 131 in 2018, the form experts there describing him as “an exuberant type” and “a good topped individual and a top class sprinter”.

His fee in the Hunter Valley is $22,000.

His sire Dark Angel (Acclamation-Midnight Angel by Machiavellian), whose fee at Yeomanstown Stud in County Kildare, Ireland is €85,000 (after entering stud in 2008 on just €10,000), created such a huge impression with his early crops that Godolphin bought into him in 2015 and Coolmore sent a large number of mares in the past two seasons.

Winner of four races at two including the Middle Park Stakes-Gr.1 and Mill Reef Stakes-Gr.2, his Gr.1 winners also include the July Cup/Diamond Jubilee winner Lethal Force (dam by Desert Style, now at stud) when also trained by Clive Cox, Nunthorpe Stakes winner Mecca’s Angel (dam by Music Boy grandson Atraf), Prix de l’Abbaye winner Battaash (dam by Invincible Spirit son Lawman), Queen Elizabeth II Stakes winner Persuasive (dam by Choisir, second dam by Hector Protector), all conceived when his fee was at €12,500 or less.

He has 55SW among his 500 winners and these also include Shoemaker Miler-Gr.1 winner Hunt (Vettori/Sharpen Up, has Machiavellian 3fx3m), Hollywood Derby-Gr.1 winner Raging Bull (Mr Greeley/Mukaddamah), Ardhoomey (Orpen/Doyoun, inbred 5fx4f to Natalma’s daughter Raise the Standard), Sovereign Debt (Most Welcome/Cyrano de Bergerac) and Gabrial (Mtoto/Iron Duke).

It is interesting to see Dark Angel has worked with stallions from the Green Desert line of Danzig (Desert Style/Invincible Spirit) and with the Danehill grandson Choisir, strains his son will have plenty of access to in Australia. Dark Angel’s dam is by Machiavellian, a Mr. Prospector son whose dam Coup de Folie is inbred to Almahmoud, carrying her daughters Cosmah and Natalma 2×2. As Danehill (Danzig) carries Natalma 3mx3f, Harry Angel looks certain to suit here.

Dark Angel’s second dam is by Night Shift, a minor winner by Natalma’s son Northern Dancer and a brother to Gr.1 winner and super broodmare Fanfreluche, whose descendants locally include Flying Spur (Danehill) and Encosta de Lago (Fairy King), giving scope to create inbreeding to this brother and sister. Worth remembering too is that Night Shift shuttled briefly, leaving Gr.1 winner Align, a successful sire in NZ. Dark Angel’s sire Acclamation (Royal Applause-Princess Athena by Ahonoora) is a great-grandson of Try My Best (Northern Dancer-Sex Appeal by Buckpasser), a grandson of Best in Show, a mare who also features in the female line of Redoute’s Choice (fourth dam). Try My Best is also sire of Last Tycoon, whose descendants, including daughters of Written Tycoon and O’Reilly, are worth considering with Harry Angel.

Harry Angel’s dam Beatrix Potter was placed in Ireland and is a daughter of Cadeaux Genereux (Young Generation-Smarten Up by Sharpen Up), a champion European sprinter whose wins included the July Cup-Gr.1 and the Sprint Championship-Gr.1 and who is a great-great grandson of Tudor Minstrel (Owen Tudor-Sansonnet by Sansovino) and carries that horse 4mx5f. Tudor Minstrel, a grandson of Hyperion, is intensely inbred as Hyperion’s dam Selene is by Chaucer (a son of Canterbury Pilgrim) and from Serenissima (a daughter of Gondolette), while Sansovino is by Canterbury Pilgrim’s son Swynford and from Gondolette. Owen Tudor also carries another line of Chaucer as his dam sire Pharos is from Scapa Flow (Chaucer). Sansonnet is a daughter of Lady Juror (Son-in-Law-Lady Josephine by Sundridge), a half-sister to Mumtaz Mahal. This pedigree also carries Teddy (from the same family as Hyperion’s sire Gainsborough) and a 5mx5m cross of Bay Ronald.

This suggests that mares carrying Star Kingdom (rich in Canterbury Pilgrim), Lunchtime (5mx4m Selene), or the NZ sire greats Sir Tristram and Star Way (both doubling Selene) will find plenty of “kissing cousins” in the pedigree of Harry Angel. Beatrix Potter’s second dam, stakes placed Great Joy, is a daughter of another sire who shuttled here in Grand Lodge (USA) (Chief’s Crown-La Papagena by Habitat) Winner of the Dewhurst-Gr.1 and St James’s Palace Stakes-Gr.1 and responsible for top class performers like Shogun Lodge, Grand Zulu and Freemason locally and Sinndar, Queen’s Logic and Grandera in Europe, he carries Somethingroyal (Princequillo) 4mx4m via sons Secretariat and Sir Gaylord and is a grandson of Danzig. His second dam is by Tudor Melody, a son of Tudor Minstrel and his third dam is by Nearco’s half-brother Niccolo dell’Arca. Magic Flute, second dam of Grand Lodge has their dam Nogara 5mx3m.

Great Joy’s runners include the dual HK Gr.1 winner Xtension (by the Best in Show family member Xaar) and stakes placed A Huge Dream (by Sadler’s Wells son Refuse to Bend), dam of Listed winner Mrs Gallagher (by Green Desert son Oasis Dream).

Next dam, the unraced Cheese Soup, is by the Kentucky Derby/Preakness winner Spectacular Bid (Bold Bidder-Promised Land by Palestinian), US Horse of the Year in 1980, who carries a 3fx3f cross of To Market (also broodmare sire of Marscay). She left five winners, best being stakes winner A La Carte (Caerleon) and is also second dam of stakes winner and Gr.1 runner-up Wathab (Cadeaux Genereux).

Harry Angel’s fourth dam Avum (Umbrella Fella-Avie by Gallant Man) won 10 races and was stakes placed and her dam Avie, a half-sister to Alabama Stakes winner Tona (Nashua), left the multiple Gr.1 winner and sire Lord Avie (Lord Gaylord), Champion 2YO Colt in the US in 1980. The next three dams are Evilone (Tom Fool), High Stepper (Hyperion) and Show a Leg (Blue Peter), the last is out of Bonnet,
a daughter of Sandwich and the Doncaster Cup/Jockey Club Cup winner Bongrace (Spion Kop). This is family 1l and the next dam (and 11th dam of Harry Angel) is 1000 Guineas winner Vaucluse (Dark Ronald-Valve by Valssquez), whose third dam is wonderful taproot mare Illuminata, so real thoroughbred royalty.

With line breeding to Northern Dancer and Native Dancer and duplications of Bold Bidder and Tudor Minstrel along with key horses such as Ahonoora, Sharpen Up, Machiavellian and Danzig, who have all worked so well with Danehill, close up in his pedigree, Harry Angel is sure to prove popular. His race record and $22,000 fee are also compelling incentives.

“Harry Angel is a high-end sprinter whose precocity will work well in this part of the world,” Godolphin Australia’s managing director, Vin Cox, said. “We have been to have a look at him and were very impressed with him on type. We’re sure he’s the sort that Australian buyers will like, we will be supporting him with Godolphin mares and expect him to get off to a good start.”

“He was the world’s best sprinter in a year when there were a lot of good sprinters going around, particularly in Australia,” Darley head of sales,” Alastair Pulford said. “The international handicappers rated him better than Chautauqua, better than Redzel, better than Vega Magic.” n