This article first appeared in the July edition of Owner Breeder
It’s interesting to speculate how Dark Angel would have fared had he stayed in training beyond his two-year-old season. At the time, the British and Irish sprint programme for three-year-olds was weak, a reason that was put forward for his early retirement when it was announced in October 2007 that he was to stand the following season at Gay O’Callaghan’s Yeomanstown Stud.
Dark Angel had been a hardy juvenile, the first real major flag-bearer for his sire Acclamation whose nine-race campaign for Barry Hills had ranged from a win at Chester’s May meeting to the Middle Park Stakes at Newmarket on his penultimate start. In between, there had been victories in the valuable DBS St Leger Sales race (now the Goffs UK Harry Beeby Premier Yearling Stakes) at York and Mill Reef Stakes at Newbury to illustrate that he was very much at home over 6f. When he subsequently ran down the field on his first try over 7f in the Dewhurst Stakes, that further consolidated the view that his future most likely lay in sprints.
Opportunities for such a horse, however, were few and far between. Thankfully, that issue was later resolved thanks to the arrival of races such as the Commonwealth Cup and Sandy Lane Stakes. But at that time, the programme rather forced the trainer’s hand into trying to make the horse in question a miler with a crack at the Guineas often coming ahead of drop back in distance against older horses, one notable example being Danehill back in 1989.
By the time the next year’s 2,000 Guineas rolled around, Dark Angel was covering his first book of mares at Yeomanstown Stud. Retiring two-year-olds to stud is obviously not for the purists but it followed the precedent set by Fasliyev, who had been retired by Coolmore with some initial success due to injury eight years previously. Various other operations followed suit in the following years, presumably feeling the need to satisfy the demands of the commercial market, but bar the likes of Blackbeard in 2023, it is a trend that has quietened down to some degree.
As far as Dark Angel is concerned, he was expected to throw sharp two-year-olds when they first emerged in the spring 2011. And that he did. For instance, there was the Richard Fahey-trained Lily’s Angel, who won her first three starts topped by the Lily Agnes Stakes at Chester’s May meeting. At that the same Chester May meeting, her stablemate Gabrial ran away with his debut over 5f.
As it turned out, both horses came to epitomise a typical Dark Angel; between them, they ran 19 times in good company at two and trained on into Group performers during similarly busy campaigns as older horses. Gabrial in particular became a fan favourite with a record of nine wins in 93 starts and various high-profile placings highlighted by a third behind Frankel in the Sussex Stakes.
Over a decade on and the progressive, high-class Dark Angel remains very much a part of the British and Irish racing landscape, as we saw at Royal Ascot where the stallion – now a 19-year-old veteran – was represented by the Group 1 winners Charyn and Khaadem.
Charyn is an O’Callaghan success story from top to bottom
Four-year-old Charyn, whose wide-margin win in the Queen Anne Stakes continues an excellent season for his owner Nurlan Bizakov of Sumbe, was a Group 2 winner as a two-year-old in the Criterium de Maisons-Laffitte. He ran some creditable races in defeat as a three-year-old last year but has found a new level of form for Roger Varian this season, with wins in the Doncaster Mile and bet365 Mile preceding his Ascot victory.
Charyn is an O’Callaghan success story from top to bottom, having been bred by Guy O’Callaghan’s Grangemore Stud out of a mare, the Listed-placed Futoon, by Kodiac, who has successfully held court at Tony O’Callaghan’s Tally-Ho Stud for so long. Charyn has developed into a really consistent high-level performer and given the no-nonsense manner of his recent victories, the Queen Anne Stakes is unlikely to be the last of his Group 1 successes. Regardless, Sumbe has another proper stallion prospect on its hands to stand at its Normandy farm.
Dark Angel pictured in his racing days. Pic – George Selwyn
Yeomanstown Stud also bred Khaadem, who recorded back-to-back wins in the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes. He is twice the age of Charyn and has been a classy fixture of each of the past six seasons for Charlie Hills, initially in the colours of Sheikh Hamdan whose Shadwell Estate Company paid no less than 750,000gns for the horse when he came up for sale as a yearling. That sale came at a time of major investment by Shadwell in Dark Angel’s progeny. Between 2013 and 2019, the operation spent 9,105,000gns at Tattersalls on 36 yearlings by the sire, of which Khaadem was the most expensive colt. Group 3 winners Heeraat and Markaz, who stood for a time under the Shadwell banner at Derrinstown Stud, was also among the group but the best by far was the brilliant sprinter Battaash, whose lengthy career encompassed a pair of wins in the Nunthorpe Stakes as well as the Prix de l’Abbaye and King’s Stand Stakes.
Today, Dark Angel’s stud career contains 16 Group or Grade 1 winners bred off fees ranging from €7,000 to €85,000. The likes of Khaadem, Battash, Art Power, Lethal Force, Harry Angel and this year’s Group 1 Takamatsunomiya Kinen winner Mad Cool underline how speed is the overriding theme, as you would expect from the Acclamation and Royal Applause sire line. But several have stretched out successfully as well including the top-class milers Angel Bleu, Persuasive and Raging Bull.
One particularly quick daughter was Mecca’s Angel, whose crowning moment came when successful in the 2016 Nunthorpe Stakes for Michael Dods. A mere 16,000gns yearling purchase by her trainer, she changed hands to Coolmore at the end of her racing career and is rapidly becoming a producer of note for them as the dam of Content, a Group 3-winning two-year-old last year, and now Bedtime Story, who turned in one of the most impressive performances of the Royal meeting when tearing apart the Chesham Stakes.
Sons of Dark Angel have so far been a bit hit and miss at stud, although Darley’s Harry Angel is doing his bit to change perception and young horses such as Angel Bleu, Raging Bull and The Antarctic alongside Charyn are still to come.
However, from an early stage it was apparent that Dark Angel was developing into a fair broodmare sire. Havana Grey, who is now such an important stallion for British breeding, was one of the first flagbearers in that department and Bedtime Story must now be a short order to join him on the list as a Group 1 winner. Space Legend, another progressive type who ran second in the King Edward VII Stakes at Royal Ascot, is also out of a Dark Angel mare. Given that we’re now seeing his more expensively produced and therefore better-bred daughters coming through, expect Dark Angel to continue to thrive in this role.
A blue hen in the making
One of the defining moments of the 2008 racing season in North America was the sight of trainer Rick Dutrow heading out to the track in the aftermath of the Belmont Stakes, the sweat drowning his shirt like a tide.
With the eyes of the racing world upon him, Dutrow was marching out to meet his star three-year-old Big Brown following a shockingly bad performance in the Belmont, the third leg of the Triple Crown. Big Brown had won the first two legs, the Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes, in such authoritative style that he went off the 30/100 favourite to secure the Triple Crown but weakened so quickly down the back stretch that he was all but pulled up by jockey Kent Desormeaux, leaving Da’Tara to win as a 39/1 shot.
Big Brown did return to bag another Grade 1, the Haskell Invitational at Monmouth Park, before retiring to stud as the subject of a hefty valuation to Three Chimneys Farm in Kentucky. Big Brown did not have a heavyweight pedigree on his side, being a son of the inexpensive but extremely well-bred Danzig horse Boundary, and having initially started out at a fee of $65,000 in 2009, was advertised at only $10,000 by 2014. Those who were wary were proven right for the most part as out of his 35 stakes winners sired to date, only one, Dortmund, has scored at the top level. Since 2015, he has resided in New York, most recently at Irish Hill and Dutchess Views Stallions for $5,000 where he covered 12 mares last year.
Puca is the dam of three stakes horses from as many to race
Big Brown, however, has gifted the sport with a real blue hen in the making in Puca, who joined an elite group of mares last month as the dam of Dornoch, appropriately the winner of the Belmont Stakes (staged this year at Saratoga as Belmont Park undergoes redevelopment). Remarkably, the Danny Gargan-trained Dornoch is the mare’s second Classic winner in as many years after Mage, successful in last year’s Kentucky Derby. Both are sons of Hill ’n’ Dale Farm’s ascendant young stallion Good Magic, a son of Curlin who boasts 18 stakes winners out of his first two crops. In addition to Mage and Dornoch, the list includes another current Grade 1-winning three-year-old in Muth, the Santa Anita Derby winner, as well as Society Man, who landed the Matt Winn Stakes at Churchill Downs on the same Belmont Stakes weekend.
Mage and Dornoch, who also nosed out Sierra Leone to win last year’s Remsen Stakes, are two of the first three foals out of Puca bred by Grandview Equine, the nom-de-plume of Robert Clay (the founder of Three Chimneys Farm who was incidentally still at the helm at the time of Big Brown’s arrival to its roster) and partners. Grandview required some mares to support Good Magic, in whom the operation had purchased three shares, and Puca, a Grade 2-placed half-sister to top turf runner Finnegan’s Wake in foal to Gun Runner, evidently fitted the bill. With the assistance of agents Alex Solis and Jason Litt, Grandview paid $475,000 for Puca at the 2018 Fasig-Tipton Kentucky November Sale.
The Gun Runner filly she was carrying at the time, Gunning, was also talented enough to secure black-type, meaning that Puca is the dam of three stakes horses from as many to race. So the pressure is on for her fourth foal, the two-year-old Baeza, who is from the first crop of multiple Grade 1 winner McKinzie. He realised $1.2 million to Mayberry Farm as a yearling at last year’s Keeneland September Sale.
Puca is just the ninth mare to produce two North American Classic winners. The list stretches back to Maggie B.B., dam of the 1879 Preakness Stakes winner Harold and 1884 Belmont Stakes winner Panique. From then on, the list comprises Cinderella (1896 Belmont winner Hastings and 1898 Kentucky Derby winner Plaudit), Lady Margaret (1896 Preakness winner Margrave and 1902 Belmont winner Masterman), Ignite (1900 Preakness winner Hindus and 1906 Kentucky Derby winner Sir Huon), Leisure (Preakness winners Royal Tourist in 1908 and Holiday in 1914), Prudery (1927 Derby winner Whiskery and 1928 Preakness winner Victorian), Weekend Surprise (1990 Preakness winner Summer Squall and 1992 Belmont winner A.P. Indy) and Better Than Honour (2006 Belmont winner Jazil and 2007 Belmont winner Rags To Riches).
In Europe, such mares also breathe rarefied air, none more so than Urban Sea, whose sons Galileo and Sea The Stars both won the Derby, and You’resothrilling, whose outstanding record contains the winners of the Newmarket and Irish 2,000 Guineas (Gleneagles), Irish 1,000 Guineas (Marvellous) and Prix de Diane (Joan Of Arc).
Puca, for her part, has achieved her lofty standing at the age of 12. Last year, the Grandview partners decided to cash in and offered the mare back in foal to Good Magic at the Keeneland November Sale. Although initially unsold in the ring, she later changed hands in a private transaction to John Stewart’s Resolute Racing for $2.9 million. She has since foaled a brother to Dornoch and Mage, who has just completed his first season at stud at Airdrie Stud in Kentucky, and is back in foal to Good Magic.
Since the publication of this article, Dornoch has won the Grade 1 Haskell Invitational at Monmouth Park.
Puca: daughter of Big Brown has joined rarefied company. Pic – Keeneland
